BV  4800  .T74  1914 
Trevelyan,  W.  B.  b.  1853, 
Apples  of  gold 


^O    /ir^ 


a 


Hpples  of  (3olb 


"  A  word  fitly  spoken  is  like  apples  of  gold 
in  baskets  of  silver." — Prov.  xxv.  ii. 


Bpplee  of  (3oIb 

MAR  26  191 

COMPILED    AND    ARRANGED    BY    THE    REvX6^>/, 

W.  B.  TREVELYAN,  M.A.      ^  ^ 

WARDEN    OF    LIDDON    HOUSE 


WITH   INTRODUCTION    BY  THE  VERY  REV. 

H.  C.  BEECHING,  D.D. 

DEAN    OF    NORWICH 


NEW  YORK 
E.   P.   DUTTON   &   COMPANY 


"  Finally,  brethren,  whatsoever  things  are  true, 
whatsoever  things  are  honourable,  whatsoever 
things  are  just,  whatsoever  things  are  pure, 
whatsoever  things  are  lovely,  whatsoever  things 
are  of  good  report ;  if  there  be  any  virtue,  and 
if  there  be  any  praise,  think  on  these  things." — 
Phil.  iv.  8. 


Compilei's  preface 

SO  many  books  of  extracts  already  exist 
that  some  apology  is  needed  for  a  new 
one. 

This  is  intended  specially  for  the  use  of 
those  who,  whether  through  sickness,  trouble,  or 
any  other  cause,  have  more  time  than  usual 
for  reading  and  thinking,  and  who  need  some 
guidance.  It  is  significant  that  the  Latin  word 
"  Confortare " — from  which  is  derived  our 
English  word  "  Comfort  " — ^means  "  to  streng- 
then," and  the  Compiler  believes  that  what  is 
needed  is  not  anything  merely  emotional,  or 
even  simply  devotional,  but  rather  something 
strengthening.  He  would  justify  this  line  by 
referring  to  the  words  of  St.  Paul  in  Philippians 
iv.  8.  Thus  the  passages  selected  are  intended 
to  suggest  thoughts,  lay  foundations,  and  build 
up  character,  rather  than  to  afford  passing  con- 
solation. 

It  is  hoped  that  those  who  use  the  book 
will  be  led  on  to  further   study  of  some  at  least 


vi  COMPILER'S  PREFACE 

of  the  books  quoted.  The  choice  is  wide 
enough  to  meet  the  needs  of  a  great  variety 
of  minds,  and,  if  used  thoughtfully,  ought  to 
create  a  desire  for  closer  acquaintance  with 
these  and  other  works  of  the  same  writers. 

The  Compiler  gratefully  acknowledges  the  permission 
accorded  by  the  following  authors  and  owners  for  the  use  of 
copyright  quotations  :  The  Archbishop  of  York ;  the  Bishop 
of  Bloemfontein  ;  the  Bishop  of  Winchester  ;  Mr.  Warre 
Cornish  ;  Mr.  Henry  Newbolt ;  Mrs.  Coventry  Patmore ; 
Mr.  Harold  Spender ;  the  Ruskin  Executors ;  Messrs.  George 
Allen  &  Sons ;  George  Bell  &  Sons ;  Burns  &  Gates ;  Chapman 
&  Hall ;  Chatto  &  Windus ;  the  Clarendon  Press ;  Constable 
&  Co.  ;  J.  M.  Dent  &  Sons ;  Bertram  Dobell ;  Duckworth 
&  Co. ;  Hodder  &  Stoughton  ;  Kegan  Paul  &  Co. ;  Longmans, 
Green  &  Co.  ;  Macmillan  &  Co.  ;  Elkin  Mathews ;  Methuen 
&  Co.  ;  Mowbray  &  Co.  ;  John  Murray  ;  Sir  Isaac  Pitman 
&  Sons ;  Rivington  ;  Walter  Scott,  Ltd.  ;  Charles  Scribner's 
Sons ;  Skefhngton  &  Son  ;  Smith,  Elder  &  Co. 

The  Compiler  also  wishes  to  acknowledge  the  help  given  to 
him  by  Mrs.  F.  W.  Herbert,  without  whose  assistance  the  work 
could  not  have  been  carried  out. 

Every  care  has  been  taken  to  ascertain  the  ownership  of 
copyrights.  Should  any  such  have  been  printed  without 
permission  the  Compiler  sincerely  hopes  the  error  may  be 
forgiven. 


3ntrobuction 


THIS  book  of  readings,  which  I  have  been 
privileged  to  read  over  in  proof,  differs 
from  any  other  that  I  know,  partly  in  its  main 
purpose,  which  is  to  quicken  the  spirit  of  devo- 
tion by  an  appeal  to  the  intelligence,  and  partly 
in  the  fact  that  its  author  has  thrown  his  net 
wider  than  usual,  and  has  found  his  material 
in  essays  and  other  secular  writings  as  well  as  in 
the  treatises  of  orthodox  divines.  Moreover, 
though  a  few  pieces  are  taken  from  older  writers, 
the  greater  number  are  from  those  of  our  own 
day,  who  know  the  spiritual  sickness  of  the  time 
and  are  best  able  to  minister  to  it. 

I  remember  Jowett  once  saying,  in  deprecation 
of  what  seemed  to  him  the  excessive  praise  of 
a  popular  preacher,  "  But  what  we  want  in  a  ser- 
mon is  facts.'^^  He  meant,  of  course,  not  facts  of 
history,  but  facts  about  the  spiritual  life  ;  about 
man's  being   and  character,  and  the  being  and 


viii  INTRODUCTION 

character  of  God.  And  that  surely  is  what  men 
do  want.  What  we  ask  from  our  teachers,  when 
we  are  awake  to  the  need  of  teaching  at  all,  is 
the  clear  exposition  of  some  divine  truth,  which, 
by  virtue  of  their  individual  thought  or 
experience,  they  have  apprehended  with  special 
vividness. 

To  have  brought  together  so  many  passages 
illustrating  with  such  variety  the  truths  most 
helpful  to  those  whose  minds  in  time  of  trouble 
are  asking  for  more  light,  is  an  achievement  for 
which  many  beside  myself  will  be  grateful  to 
the  spiritual  insight  and  wide  sympathy  of  the 
Compiler. 

H.  C.  BEECHING. 

THE    DEANERY, 
NORWICH. 


Contente 

l^art  31. 


Solitude  ....... 

Loneliness  and  the  Blessings  of  Solitude 

Quiet 

Separation  from  the  World  . 
Leisure        ..... 

Uses  and  Interpretation  of  Suffering 
Pain  a  Blessing    .... 
Acceptance  of  Suffering 
The  Cross  interpreting  Life 
Purification  Life-long  . 

The  Outcome  of  Sacrifice 

Triumph     ..... 
Fruitfulness  .... 


PAGE 
3 
4 

9 

12 

H 

I? 

i8 

22 
28 

31 

34 
34 
43 


3n  XTime  of  Stcl^ness^ 

Penitence          ........  53 

Conversion  ........  54 

Self-knowledge 6l 

Contrition  ........  64 

Confession  .         .......  74 

Amendment         .         .         .         .         .         .         .84 

ix 


X                                  CONTENTS 

PAGE 

Faith 92 

Its  Nature 

95 

A  Gift  of  God  . 

102 

An  Adventure     . 

107 

Through  Experience    , 

114 

A  Good  Life  Necessary 

120 

Obedience 

122 

The  Obedience  of  Christ 

123 

(Passive)  Resignation    . 

126 

(Active)  Fortitude 

132 

Part  m% 
ffrutts  ot  Sutfettng. 


Sympathy  ....... 

As  revealed  in  Christ  and  manifested  to  All  Men 
The  Beam  and  the  Mote     . 
Inspiring  Power  of  Sympathy 
Gift  of  Self  Necessary 

Courage  ...... 

A  Gift  of  God  :    approved  by  Him 
Christ's  Courage  :    Our  Need  of  it 
Endurance  ..... 

Heroism  innate  in  Men 

The  Unconquerable  Nature  of  Courage 


141 
142 
144 

147 
150 

152 
153 

154 
156 
156 
159 


CONTENTS 

xi 

PAGE 

Hope 

162 

In  Nature  and  in  Christ      .... 

.     163 

The  Grace  of  Hope 

.     164 

The  Strength  of  Optimism  .... 

.     167 

The  Never-failing  Character  of  Hope   . 

.     169 

Joy 

172 

A  Distinctly  Christian  Attribute  . 

173 

Its  Influence 

175 

Joy  is  necessarily  mixed  with  some  sadness    in    thi 

s 

life,  but  this  is  quite  distinct  from  Accidie 

177 

The  Joy  of  Jesus  Christ :    Reflected  in  Nature 

179 

Joy  must  be  sought,  not  waited  for,  and  recognized 

everywhere    .          ..... 

181 

Work 

184 

The  Possibilities  of  the  Common  Life  . 

185 

Pledged  to  Service       ..... 

190 

The  Nobility  of  Work           .... 

.  193 

Redeeming  the  Time 

196 

tTrouble 

SoUtu&e— mses  an&  interpretation  of 
Suttertng— Ube  ©utcome  of  Sacrifice 


A.G. 


Solitube. 

n^HE  Spirit  lifted  me  tip,  and  took  me  away  :  and  I  went 

in  bitterness,  in  the  heat  of  my  spirit,  and  the  hand 

of  the  Lord  was  strong  upon  me.  Ezek.  iii.  14. 

Can  thine  heart  endure,  or  can  thine  hands  he  strong, 
in  the  days  that  I  shall  deal  with  thee  ?  I  the  Lord  have 
spoken  it,  and  will  do  it.  Ezek.  xxii.  14. 

Let  us  go  .  .  .  three  days'  journey  into  the  wilderness, 
that  we  muy  sacrifice  to  the  Lord  our  God.  Exod.  iii.  ig. 

I  have  trodden  the  winepress  alone,  and  of  the  peoples 
there  was  no  man  with  Me.  Isa.  Ixiii.  3. 

And  after  He  had  sent  the  multitudes  away.  He  went 
up  into  the  mountain  apart  to  pray  :  and  when  even 
was  come  He  was  there  alone.  S.  Matt.  xiv.  23. 

The  Temptation.  S.  Matt.  iv.  i-ii. 

Love  not  the  world,  neither  the  things  that  are  in  the 
world  I  S.   John  ii,  15. 

Lord  Jesus,  we  beseech  Thee  by  the  lonehness  of 
Thy  suffering  on  the  Cross,  be  nigh  unto  all  them  that 
are  desolate  in  pain  or  sorrow ;  and  let  the  magic  of 
Thy  presence  transform  their  loneliness  into  com- 
fort, consolation,  and  holy  fellowship  with  Thee,  Lord 
Jesus,  Thou  pitiful  Saviour. — Sursum  Cor  da. 

Grant  us,  O  Lord,  not  to  mind  earthly  things,  but 
to  love  things  heavenly  ;  and  even  now,  while  we  are 
placed  among  things  that  are  passing  away,  to  cleave 
to  those  that  shall  abide  :  through  Jesus  Christ  our 
Lord. — Leonine  Sacr anient ary. 

3 


4  TROUBLE 

XoneUne00  an&  tbe  ffileaaing^  of 
SoUtube* 

A  great  space  in  the  Ideal  Life  was  given  to 
solitude.  ...  "  After  He  had  sent  the  multi- 
tudes away,  He  went  up  into  the  mountain  apart 
to  pray,  and  when  even  was  come,  He  was  there 
alone."  It  was  His  way  of  realizing  His  undis- 
turbed Communion  with  the  Father.  His  chosen 
rest  was  the  solitude  in  which  He  retreated  from 
the  bustle  of  the  world  to  the  refreshing  calm  of 
the  eternal. 

He  was  the  Image  of  God,  in  which  we  too  are 
made  ;  and  if  we  are  to  realize  our  true  life,  of 
which  His  was  the  model,  we  must  learn  to  be 
alone. 

It  is  in  solitude  that  we  discover  the  secret  of 
detachment,  and  realize  that  supreme  relation- 
ship which  is  the  fount  at  once  of  greatness  and 
peace — the  relationship  of  the  individual  soul 
and  God.  .  .  .  Solitude  is  necessary  for  com- 
munion with  God.  It  is  in  silence  that  the  final 
truths  assert  and  reveal  themselves.  ...  It  is 
through  the  intuitions  of  silence — the  deep  soul- 
convictions  which  escape  words  and  cannot 
brook  the  atmosphere  of  the  crowd  and  its  chatter 
— that  we  reach  God. 

"  Be  stilly  and  know  that  I  am  God." 

Archbishop  Lang. 


SOLITUDE  5 

As  Christ  was  led  into  the  wilderness  that  He 
might  triumph  over  the  very  spirit  of  selfishness, 
so  let  any  loneliness  of  place  or  spirit  kill  in  us  the 
soul  of  selfishness  ;  and,  in  it,  of  any  sullen  separa- 
tion from  those  around  us.  So,  as  we  draw  nearer 
to  Him,  we  shall  draw  nearer  to  our  brethren, 
our  hearts  will  open  to  them  with  a  true  sym- 
pathy ;  and  for  His  sake,  the  holy  world  above 
us  will  come  down  to  us  ;  we  too  shall  meet  the 
hosts  of  God  upon  our  way  ;  and  even  in  the 
wilderness  of  this  life,  amongst  its  wild  beasts 
and  evil  spirits,  from  us  shall  not  be  withheld 
the  unseen,  but  most  real  ministry  of  God's  holy 

angels. 

Bishop  Samuel  Wilberforce. 


No  man  doth  safely  appear  abroad,  but  he  who  can  abide 

at  home. 
No  man  doth  safely  speak,  but  he  that  is  glad  to  hold  his 

peace. 

No  man  doth  safely  rule,  but  he  that  is  glad  to  be  ruled. 
No  man  doth  safely  rule,  but  he  that  hath  learned  gladly 
to  obey. 

Whoso  therefore  withdraweth  himself  from  his  acquaint- 
ance and  friends,  God  will  draw  near  unto  him  with 
His  holy  angels. 


6  TROUBLE 

Shut  the  door  upon  thee,  and  call  unto  thee    Jesus, 

thy  Beloved. 
Stay  with  Him  in  thy  closet  :    for  thou  shalt  not  find 

so  great  peace  anywhere  else. 

Imitation  of  Christy  Book  I,  xx. 

Farewell,  my  Loneliness  ! 

I  that  had  thought  to  curse  thee,  come  to  bless. 
Deep  skies  and  glovv^ing  stars  in  thee  I  found. 

A  stream  ran  through  the  sandy  wilderness 
And  roses  blossomed  on  the  desert  ground. 

Beloved  Solitude  ! 

No  voices  over-eager,  harsh  or  rude, 
Mar  the  sweet  music  of  thy  gracious  hours. 

Among  the  crowd  of  those  too  near  and  dear 

Too  often  have  I  known  disgust  and  fear. 
The  isolation  of  those  glorious  powers 
That  in  self  knowledge  are,  not,  not  ourselves,  but  ours. 

Mary  E.  Coleridge. 

The  severest  of  all  the  limitations  of  Jesus  lay 
in  the  isolation  of  His  life,  both  actual  and 
spiritual.  It  is  recorded  that  He  was  homeless, 
but  the  absence  of  a  dwelling-place — sufficient 
privation  in  itself — ^was  a  symbol  of  an  intellec- 
tual, moral,  and  spiritual  homelessness  such  as, 
in  its  last  rigours,  passes  our  comprehension. 
No  man  has  ever  been  so  lonely  as  was  Jesus. 
None  has  ever  experienced  so  entire  a  disappoint- 


SOLITUDE  7 

ment  of  the  social  instinct.  ...  It  is  true  that 
He  had  the  attachment  of  His  disciples,  but  these 
men  were  inaccessible  to  the  ideas  and  motives 
which  formed  His  constant  theme.  .  .  .  With 
infinite  patience  He  strove  to  make  them  par- 
takers of  what  was  the  inspiration  of  His  own  life, 
but  to  the  close  they  misunderstood  Him.  .  .  . 
However  deeply  personal  misunderstanding 
wounded  Him,  there  is  no  trace  of  scar  in  the 
Man  as  we  behold  Him  ;  it  was  when  *'  the  King- 
dom "  was  misunderstood,  when  the  spiritual 
was  exploited  in  interests  political  or  legal,  when 
human  life  was  cheapened,  when  the  Magdalen's 
gift  or  the  publican's  hospitality  was  miscon- 
strued, it  was  then  that  the  wound  was  inflicted, 
that  the  isolation  became  anguish.  This  is 
something  so  altogether  beyond  the  experience  of 
ordinary  life  that  many  men  and  women  must  live 
and  die  without  so  much  as  a  glimpse  of  the  lonely 

regions  Jesus  trod. 

T.  J.  Hardy. 

God  calls  and  guides  the  soul  to  inward  Soli- 
tude, and  mystical  Silence,  when  He  says  that  He 
will  speak  to  her  alone,  in  the  most  secret  and 
hidden  part  of  the  heart.  Thou  must  enter  into 
this  mystical  Silence,  if  thou  wouldest  hear  the 
sweet  and  Divine  Voice.     It  is  not  enough,   in 


8  TROUBLE 

order  to  gain  this  Treasure,  to  forsake  the  World, 
nor  to  renounce  thine  own  Desires,  and  all  things 
created,  if  thou  wean  not  thyself  also  from  all 
Desires  and  Thoughts.  Rest  in  this  mystical 
Silence,  and  open  the  Door,  that  so  God  may 
communicate  Himself  unto  thee,  unite  Himself 
with  thee,  and  transform  thee  into  Himself. 

Michael  de  Molinos. 

To  sit  on  rocks,  to  muse  o'er  flood  and  fell, 
To  slowly  trace  the  forest's  shady  scene, 
Where  things  that  own  not  man's  dominion  dwell, 
And  mortal  foot  hath  ne'er  or  rarely  been  ; 
To  climb  the  trackless  mountain  all  unseen, 
With  the  wild  flock  that  never  needs  a  fold  ; 
Alone  o'er  steeps  and  foaming  falls  to  lean  ; 
This  is  not  solitude  ;  'tis  but  to  hold 
Converse  with  Nature's   charms,  and  view  her  stores 
unroll'd. 

But  'midst  the  crowd,  the  hum,  the  shock  of  men, 
To  hear,  to  see,  to  feel,  and  to  possess. 
And  roam  along,  the  world's  tired  denizen, 
With  none  who  bless  us,  none  whom  we  can  bless ; 
Minions  of  splendour,  shrinking  from  distress  ! 
None  that,  with  kindred  consciousness  endued. 
If  we  were  not,  would  seem  to  smile  the  less. 
Of  all  that  flatter'd,  followed,  sought,  and  sued  ; 
This  is  to  be  alone  ;  this,  this  is  solitude. 

Byron. 


SOLITUDE  9 

Unthinking  heads  which  have  not  learnt  to  be 
alone  are  a  prison  to  themselves  if  they  be  not 
with  others ;  whereas,  on  the  contrary,  those 
whose  thoughts  are  a  fair  and  a  hurry  within,  are 
sometimes  fain  to  retire  into  company  to  be  out 
of  the  crowd  of  themselves. 

Sir  Thomas  Browne. 

®uiet 

It  seems  to  be  a  law  of  the  imagination  that 

it  only  works  in  a  mind  of  stillness.     The  noise 

and  crush  of  life  jar  it. 

Walter  Bagehot. 

It  is  in  thy  power,  whenever  thou  shalt  choose, 
to  retire  into  thyself.  For  nowhere  with  more 
quiet  or  with  more  freedom  from  trouble  does  a 
man  retire,  particularly  when  he  has  within  him 
such  thoughts  that  by  looking  into  them  he  is 
immediately  in  perfect  tranquillity. 

Marcus  Aurelius. 

An  old  man  leaning  on  a  gate, 

Over  a  London  mews — to  contemplate — 

Is  it  the  sky  above — the  stones  below  ? 

Is  it  remembrance  of  the  years  gone  by, 

Or  thinking  forward  to  futurity. 
That  holds  him  so  ? 


10  TROUBLE 

Day  after  day  he  stands, 

Quietly  folded  are  the  quiet  hands, 

Rarely  he  speaks. 

Hath  he  so  near  the  hour  when  Time  shall  end. 

So  much  to  spend  ? 
What  is  it  he  seeks  ? 

Whate'er  he  be. 

He  is  become  to  me 

A  form  of  rest. 

I  think  his  heart  is  tranquil,  from  it  springs 
A  dreamy  watchfulness  of  tranquil  things. 

And  not  unblest. 

Mary  E.  Coleridge. 


In  times  of  quietness  the  heart  unfolds  itself 
before  God.  H  thou  wouldst  grow  in  grace, 
enter  into  thy  closet,  and  shut  thy  door  upon  the 
world, — upon  that  world  which  gets  the  closest 
to  thee,  and  haunts  thee  so  familiarly.  Shut  it, 
most  of  all,  upon  thy  busy,  unresting  self  :  and 
then  God  shall  speak  to  thee.  It  may  be  He 
will  commune  with  thee  as  He  has  never  done 
before,  and  reveal  unto  thee  the  secret  of  His 
presence.  .  .  .  And  this  truly  is  to  know  Him  ; 
not  as  an  abstraction,  but  as  One  who  careth 
for  us.  Who  is  nigh  to  us,  to  Whom  we  may  draw 
nigh  ;  and  ?s  such,  to  pour  out  our  hearts  before 
Him  ;  to  be  silent  in  His  presence  ;  to  be  drawn 


SOLITUDE  II 

out  of  self  ;  out  of  earthliness,  and  the  noise,  and 
the  dimness  of  self  worship,  and  to  "  hold  our- 
selves still  in  Him." 

Bishop  Samuel  Wilberforce. 

There  was  an  indescribable  repose  about  Lord 
Clarendon's  manner  and  appearance.  No  one 
who  saw  him,  in  his  later  years  at  least,  would 
have  ever  thought  him  a  specially  active  man.  .  .  . 
But  those  who  have  watched  the  habits  of  men 
of  business,  in  politics  and  out  of  it,  will  have  seen 
many  cases  in  which  a  still  and  quiet  man,  who 
does  not  seem  to  be  doing  much,  and  probably  is 
talking  of  something  quite  different,  has  in  matter 
of  fact,  and  at  the  week's  end,  accomplished  much 
more  than  the  "  rushing  mighty  wind," — the 
very  energetic  man  who  is  never  idle  or  at  rest, 
and  who  has  no  thought  but  his  office  business. 

Walter  Bagehot. 

All  heaven  and  earth  are  still — ^though  not  in  sleep. 
But  breathless,  as  we  grow  when  feeling  most  ; 
And  silent,  as  we  stand  in  thoughts  too  deep  : — 
All  heaven  and  earth  are  still  :  From  the  high  host 
Of  stars,  to  the  lull'd  lake  and  mountain  coast. 
All  is  concenter'd  in  a  life  intense. 
Where  not  a  beam,  nor  air,  nor  leaf  is  lost, 
But  hath  a  part  of  being,  and  a  sense 
Of  that  which  is  of  all  Creator  and  defence. 


12  TROUBLE 

Then  stirs  the  feeling  infinite,  so  felt 
In  solitude,  where  we  are  least  alone  ; 
A  truth,  which  through  our  being  then  doth  melt 
And  purifies  from  self  :  it  is  a  tone, 
The  soul  and  source  of  music,  which  makes  known 
Eternal  harmony,  and  sheds  a  charm. 
Like  to  the  fabled  Cytherea's  zone. 
Binding  all  things  with  beauty  ; — 'twould  disarm 
The  spectre  Death,  had  he  substantial  power  to  harm. 

Byron. 


Separation  from  tbe  Morl&^ 

From  the  Last  Supper  and  the  incidents 
which  accompanied  it,  discipleship  to  the  Lord 
received  its  permanent  consecration  ;  and  from 
the  words  which  were  then  spoken  till  the  depar- 
ture into  the  garden,  its  articulate  interpretation. 
In  the  upper  room  in  the  midst  of  the  crowded 
city  the  disciples  were  assembled  together  alone 
with  the  Lord,  that  they  might  learn  how  to  find 
their  way  in  the  outer  throng.  They  were 
lifted  for  a  season  on  high  apart  from  enemies,  and 
neutrals,  and  even  other  disciples,  that  when  they 
resumed  their  place  among  their  fellows  they 
might  not  be  dragged  down  by  the  world  which 
they  were  appointed  to  raise  up. 

F.  J.  A.  HoRT. 


SOLITUDE  13 

Like  Him,  the  disciples  should  go  forth  into 
the  world  to  overcome  it  for  its  own  sake  :  like 
His,  their  mastery  over  the  world  for  good  would 
depend  on  their  inner  separation  from  it,  trans- 
cending the  outer  commingling  :  without  a 
secret  hallowing  like  His,  they  would  be  powerless 
to  strive,   a   few  against  many. 

Ibid. 


The  Christian  has  a  deep,  silent,  hidden  peace, 
which  the  world  sees  not — like  some  well  in  a 
retired  and  shady  place,  difficult  of  access.  He 
is  the  greater  part  of  his  time  by  himself,  and 
when  he  is  in  solitude,  that  is  his  real  state. 
What  he  is  when  left  to  himself  and  to  his  God, 
that  is  his  true  life.  He  can  bear  himself  ;  he 
can  (as  it  w^ere)  joy  in  himself,  for  it  is  the  grace 
of  God  within  him,  it  is  the  presence  of  the 
eternal  Comforter,  in  which  he  joys.  He  can 
bear,  he  finds  it  pleasant,  to  be  with  himself  at 
all  times — "  Never  less  alone  than  when  alone." 
He  can  lay  his  head  on  his  pillow  at  night,  and 
own  in  God's  sight,  with  overflowing  heart,  that 
he  wants  nothing, — that  he  "  is  full  and  abounds  " 
— that  God  has  been  all  things  to  him,  and  that 
nothing  is  not  his  which  God  could  give  him. 
Many  hard  things  may  be  said  of  the  Christian, 


14  TROUBLE 

and  may  be  done  against  him,  but  he  has  a  secret 
preservative  or  charm,  and  minds  them  not. 

J.  H.  Newman. 

The  world  is  too  much  with  us  ;    late  and  soon. 

Getting  and  spending,  we  lay  waste  our  powers  : 

Little  we  see  in  Nature  that  is  ours  ; 

We  have  given  our  hearts  away,  a  sordid  boon  ! 

The  sea  that  bares  her  bosom  to  the  moon  : 

The  winds  that  will  be  howling  at  all  hours, 

And  are  up-gathered  now  like  sleeping  flowers  ; 

For  this,  for  everything,  we  are  out  of  tune  ; 

It  moves  us  not. 

W.  Wordsworth. 

The  great  man  is  he  who,  in  the  midst  of  the  crowd, 
keeps  with  perfect  sweetness  the  serenity  of  solitude. 

Emerson. 

ILeieure. 

There  are  spaces  day  by  day  in  almost  every 
life  v^hen  the  attention  is  not  demanded  for  any 
definite  object ;  when  we  are,  or  may  be,  free  to 
think  of  what  we  will.  They  are  the  times  in 
which  some  people  are  simply  listless,  and  hardly 
conscious  of  thinking  at  all ;  some  build  castles 
in  the  air  ;  some  think  of  their  ambition  ;  .  .  . 
some  of  their  anxieties  ;  some  of  their  grievances  ; 


SOLITUDE  15 

some  of  their  dislikes  ;  some,  happily,  of  their 
hobbies;  some,  very  unhappily,  of  their  health.  .  .  . 
It  is  this  "  no  man's  land,"  this  unclaimed, 
fallow  ground,  that  St.  Paul  would  have  rescued 
from  its  uselessness  or  misuse  ;  and  he  points  us 
to  the  right  and  wholesome  use  for  it  :  "  What- 
soever things  are  true,  whatsover  things  are 
honest,  whatsoever  things  are  just,  whatsoever 
things  are  pure,  whatsoever  things  are  lovely, 
whatsoever  things  are  of  good  report ;  if  there  be 
any  virtue,  and  if  there  be  any  praise,  think  on 

these  things." 

Francis  Paget. 

There  is  nothing  in  this  world  much  more 
worth  gaining  than  the  happiness  of  a  mind  that 
tends  to  dwell  on  pure  and  generous  thoughts. 
.  .  .  And  all  experience  would  teach  us  to  regret 
that  every  year,  if  we  are  not  careful,  it  will  grow 
harder  to  change  the  habitual  bearing,  the  in- 
grained likes  and  dislikes  which  give  tone  and 
direction  to  our  leisure  thoughts  ;  we  might  win 
now,  perhaps,  with  a  little  firmness  of  self-disci- 
pline, that  which  some  few  years  hence  we  may 
have  to  fight  for  inch  by  inch,  and  may  hold  only 
with  constant  effort  and  distress.  And  cer- 
tainly these  (right)  mental  ways  and  habits  will 
make  the  gladness  of  whatever  leisure  and  loneli- 


i6  TROUBLE 

ness  and  silence  may  come  in  the  years  of    life 
that  may  be  still  before  us.  .  .  . 

It  is  in  pure  and  bright  and  kindly  lives  that 
the  grace  of  God  most  surely  takes  root  down- 
ward, and  bears  fruit  upward  ;  that  the  presence 
of  our  Lord  unfolds  the  fulness  of  its  power,  and 
achieves  its  miracles  of  transforming  love.  He 
works  unstayed,  untroubled,  in  the  soul  that  has 
been  trained  to  think  in  all  its  leisure  times  of 
true  and  high  and  gentle  thoughts. 

Ibid. 

Business  is  like  brown  paper,  useful  to  wrap 
things  up  in,  but  a  great  many  people  think  the 
wrapping  the  important  thing.  The  longer  I  live, 
the  more  certain  I  am  that  a  great  deal  of  what  is 
called  business  might  as  well  be  left  undone  :  it 
only  serves  to  amuse  idle  people  or  to  occupy  busy- 
bodies  and  men  of  quarrelsome  instincts. 

How  can  anything  grow  ripe  without  leisure  ? 
Leisure  is  sunshine.  The  rising  age,  like  all 
rising  ages,  is  changing  old  things  for  new,  and 
there  is  some  danger  of  its  abolishing  leisure,  and 
getting  to  live  in  a  perpetual  hurry. 

Warre  Cornish. 


IHqcq  anb  interpretation  of 
Suffering. 

n^HOUGH  He  cause  grief,  yet  will  He  have  compassion 
according  to  the  multitude  of  His  mercies. 
For  He  doth  not  afflict  willingly,  nor  grieve  the  children 
of  men.  Lam.  iii.  32,  33. 

Behold,  I  have  refined  thee,  hut  not  as  silver  ;  I  have 
chosen  thee  in  the  furnace  of  affliction.  Isa.  xlviiii.  10. 

When  He  hath  tried  me,  I  shall  come  forth  as  gold. 

Job  xxiii.  10. 

Who,  though  He  was  a  Son,  yet  learned  obedience  by  the 
things  which  He  suffered.  Heb.  v.  8. 

They  verily  .  .  .  chastened  us  as  seemed  good  to  them  ; 
but  He  for  our  profit,  that  we  may  be  partakers  of  His 
holiness,  Heb.  xii.  10. 

Now  for  a  little  while,  if  need  be,  ye  have  been  put  to  grief 
in  manifold  temptations,  that  the  proof  of  your  faith,  being 
more  precious  than  gold  that  perisheth  though  it  is  proved 
by  fire,  might  be  found  unto  praise  and  glory  and  honour  at 
the  revelation  of  Jesus  Christ.  i  S.  Pet.  i.  6,  7. 

The  God  of  all  grace.  Who  called  you  unto  His  eternal 
glory  in  Christ,  after  that  ye  have  suffered  a  little  while, 
shall  Himself  perfect,  stablish,  strengthen  you. 

I  S.  Pet.  V.  10, 

Almighty  and  everlasting  God,  Who,  of  Thy  tender 
love  towards  mankind,  hast  sent  Thy  Son,  our  Saviour 

A.G.  17  g 


i8  TROUBLE 

Jesus  Christ,  to  take  upon  Him  our  flesh,  and  to  suffer 
death  upon  the  Cross,  that  all  mankind  should  follow 
the  example  of  His  great  humility  ;  Mercifully  grant, 
that  we  may  both  follow  the  example  of  His  patience, 
and  also  be  made  partakers  of  His  resurrection  ; 
through  the  same  Jesus  Christ  our  Lord. — Collect  for 
Palm  Sunday. 

Lord,  burn  with  the  fire  of  Thy  Holy  Spirit,  our 
reins  and  our  hearts,  that  we  may  serve  Thee  with 
chaste  body  and  please  Thee  with  pure  mind. 

Jesus,  our  God,  Who  gavest  Thy  cheek  to  those 
who  smote  Thee,  and  wast  for  our  sakes  filled  full 
with  reproach  ;  grant  to  us  Thy  servants  that,  being 
instructed  by  the  example  of  Thy  Passion,  we  may  be 
fitted  alway  to  bear  Thy  sweet  yoke,  and  learn  of 
Thee  Who  art  meek  and  lowly  of  heart. 

Almighty  and  everlasting  God,  the  Comfort  of  the 
sad,  the  Strength  of  sufferers,  let  the  prayers  of  those 
that  cry  out  of  any  tribulation  come  unto  Thee  ;  that 
all  may  rejoice  to  find  that  Thy  mercy  is  present  with 
them  in  their  afflictions  :  through  Jesus  Christ  our 
Lord . — Gelasian  Sacramentary. 

pain  a  Bleasing* 

The  higher  we  rise  in  the  scale  of  being,  the 
more  intense  the  pain  that  may  visit  us.  As  life 
is  developed  and  made  perfect,  so  is  the  capacity, 
I  might  almost  say  the  faculty,  of  pain.  .  .  . 
And  our  experience  tells  us  that  pain,  though  so 
terrible,  is  one  of  the  most  salutary, — in  the  end 
the  most  beneficent, — of  the  conditions  of  our 
nature  and  state  here. 

It  does  not  account  for  its  mysterious  presence, 
but  it  reconciles  the  wise  and  thoughtful  to  what 


USES  OF    SUFFERING  19 

is  in  itself  so  hard  to  understand,  to  consider, 
how  pain  has  been  the  occasion  and  groundwork 
of  some  of  the  greatest  of  human  virtues,  and  the 
most  glorious  of  human  actions  ;  how  it  has  called 
forth  in  the  human  soul  energies,  affections, 
sweetness,  strength,  goodness,  which  only  its  awful 
but  mighty  touch  could  have  quickened  into  life  ; 
how,  under  its  discipline,  character — even  com- 
monplace character — has  been  elevated  and  made 
beautiful,  heroes  have  been  created,  martyrs 
have  triumphed,  saints  have  been  made  perfect. 
The  world  and  life  require  pain,  to  make  them 
as  noble  as  they  may  be,  as  noble  as  they  have  been. 

R.  W.  Church. 

Pain  is  with  us  all  our  lives  long,  from  the  hour 
of  our  first  breathing  this  air  of  ours,  to  the 
moment  when  we  breathe  it  for  the  last  time.  In 
pain  we  begin  life,  in  pain  we  leave  it ;  and  in  the 
interval  between  these  points  we  each  of  us  have 
our  various  experience  of  its  strange  and  manifold 
companionship.  .  .  . 

But  pain  is  something  over  and  above  our  mere 
weakness  and  littleness  and  fewness  of  days. 
Pain  means  that  wonderful  power  of  feeling  (which 
seems  as  much  meant  to  give  us  pleasure  and 
happiness  as  the  eye  is  meant  for  seeing),  turned 
back  against  its  natural  purpose  and  use,  .  .  . 


20  TROUBLE 

made  the  means  of  driving  the  iron  into  our  very 

soul ;   fitting  us  for  a  new  life  which  is  filled  with 

new  and  amazing  energy,  but  one  that  qualifies 

us   for   tasting   deeper   and   deeper    the   cup   of 

sufi^ering. 

Ibid. 


...  If  this  be  the  hardest  ill  of  all 

For  mortal  flesh  and  heart  to  bear  in  peace, 

It  is  the  one  comes  straightest  from  God's  hand. 

And  makes  us  feel  Him  nearest  to  ourselves. 

God  gives  us  light  and  love,  and  all  good  things 

Richly  for  joy,  and  power,  to  use  aright  ; 

But  then  v^^e  may  forget  Him  in  His  gifts : — 

We  cannot  well  forget  the  hand  that  holds, 

And  pierces  us,  and  will  not  let  us  go. 

However  much  we  strive  from  under  it. 

E.  Hamilton  King. 

Then  was  the  truth  received  into  my  heart, 

That  under  heaviest  sorrow  earth  can  bring, 

If  from  the  affliction  somewhere  do  not  grow 

Honour,  which  could  not  else  have  been  a  faith. 

An  elevation,  and  a  sanctity  ; 

If  new  strength  be  not  given,  nor  old  restored, 

The  blame  is  ours,  not  Nature's. 

W.  Wordsworth. 

What  is  true  of  .  .  .  voluntary  self-discipline, 
is  equally  true  of  that  other  discipline  which  comes 


USES   OF  SUFFERING  21 

to  all  of  us  without  our  seeking, — sickness,  pain, 
bereavement,  sorrow,  and  all  the  minor  cares 
which  go  to  constitute  the  cross  that  we  are 
bidden  daily  to  take  up.  The  suffering  of  these 
things  is  never  to  be  viewed  as  an  end  in  itself, 
or  sought  for  its  own  sake  ;  but,  on  the  other 
hand,  it  is,  in  one  degree  or  another,  an  indis- 
pensable means  towards  our  real  end,  which  is 
the  formation  of  a  character  in  union  with  God. 

J.  R.  Illingworth. 

O  that  thou  wouldest  understand  the  great 
good  of  Tribulation  !  This  it  is  which  blots  out 
sins,  cleanses  the  soul,  and  produces  Patience  : 
this  in  Prayer  inflames  it,  enlarges  it,  and  causes 
it  to  exercise  the  most  sublime  act  of  Charity  ; 
this  rejoices  the  Soul,  brings  it  near  to  God,  causes 
it  to  be  called,  and  to  enter,  into  Heaven.  This 
it  is  which  tries  the  true  Servants  of  God,  and 
renders  them  wise,  valiant,  and  constant.  This 
it  is  which  makes  God  hear  them  with  speed.  .  .  • 
It  is  this  which  Annihilates,  Refines,  and  Perfects 
them  :  and  finally,  it  is  this  which  of  earthly, 
makes  Heavenly  Souls,  and  of  human.  Divine  ; 
transforming  them,  and  uniting  them  in  a  wonder- 
ful way  with  the  Lord's  Humanity  and  Divinity. 

Michael  de  ?vIolinos. 


22  TROUBLE 

Trouble  is  the  next  best  thing  to  enjoyment  : 
and  there  is  no  fate  in  the  world  so  terrible  as  to 
have  no  share  in  either  its  joys  or  its  sorrows. 

H.  W.  Longfellow. 


We  overstate  the  ills  of  life,  and  take 
Imagination,  given  us  to  bring  down 
The  choirs  of  singing  angels — overshone 
By  God's  clear  glory — down  to  earth,  to  rake 
The  dismal  snows  instead,  flake  after  flake — 
To  cover  all  the  corn.     We  walk  upon 
The  shadow  of  hills  across  a  level  thrown. 
And  pant  like  climbers.     Near  the  alder-brake 
We  sigh  so  loud,  the  nightingale  within 
Refuses  to  sing  loud,  as  else  she  would. 
O  brothers  !  let  us  leave  the  shame  and  sin 
Of  taking  vainly,  in  a  plaintive  mood, 
The  holy  name  of  Grief  ! — holy  herein. 
That  by  the  grief  of  One  came  all  our  good. 

E.  B.  Browning. 


acceptance  of  Suffering. 

Crosses  are  only  blessed  to  us  in  so  far  as  we  give 
ourselves  up  to  them  unreservedly  and  forgetting 
self. 

Seek  to  forget  yourself,  else  all  suffering  is  use- 
less. God  does  not  lay  suffering  on  us  merely 
that  we  may  suffer,  but  that  we  may  die  to  self 


USES   OF  SUFFERING  23 

by  dint  of  putting  it  aside  under  the  most  diffi- 
cult of  all  circumstances,  viz.,  pain. 

^  FiNELON. 

Habitual,  prompt,  and  constant  obedience  of 
heart  with  submission  of  judgment  (are  necessary) ; 
the  first,  the  death  of  the  flesh  of  the  old  Adam; 
the  last,  the  death  of  his  spirit ;  the  whole,  the 
life  of  the  new  Adam,  who  is  Christ.  The 
means  are  constant  recollection  of  heart  in  your 
works,  humility  and  fervour  of  heart  in  your 
prayers.  Archbishop  Ullathorne. 

The  glory  of  Christ  is  in  His  willing  surrender  of 
that  which  belonged  to  Him,  and  which  He  might 
have  always  had  and  enjoyed.  .  .  .  To  give  up 
some  precious  thing  which  is  legitimately  yours  ; 
to  shut  your  eyes  upon  visions  of  glory  or  safety 
or  luxury  which  you  might  make  your  own  with- 
out a  shade  of  blame,  that  is  so  truly  one  of  the 
marks  of  nobleness  that  no  man  is  accounted  by 
the  best  standards  truly  noble  who  is  not  doing 
that  in  some  degree.  The  man  who  is  taking 
all  that  he  has  a  right  to  take  in  life  is  always 
touched  with  a  suspicion  and  a  shade  of  baseness. 
.  .  .  (This  surrender)  is  simply  the  power  of  a 
higher  purpose.  It  is  the  calm,  manly,  uncom- 
plaining choice  to  do  this  greater  thing,  and  to 
surrender  whatever  would  hinder  the  doing  of  it 
most  faithfully  and  well.  .  .  . 


24  TROUBLE 

He  does  not  count  up  what  he  has  lost ;  he 
does  not  ask  whether  he  is  happier  or  less  happy 
than  he  would  have  been.  ...  It  is  not  a  ques- 
tion of  happiness  with  him  at  all ;  but  gradually 
without  his  seeking  it  or  asking  anything  about  it 
he  finds  that  the  soul  of  the  happiness  which  he 
has  left  behind  is  in  him  still.  Like  fountains 
of  sweet  water  in  the  sea,  it  rises  up,  and  keeps  him 
a  living  soul.  He  has  left  the  world's  pleasures 
and  its  privileges  only  to  draw  nearer  to  its  necessi- 
ties, which  are  its  real  life.  So  what  he  gave  he 
keeps,  a  thousandfold  even  in  this  present  time, 
and  eternity  is  all  before  him,  in  the  end  everlast- 
ing life. 

Phillips  Brooks. 

But  if,  impatient,  thou  let  slip  thy  cross. 
Thou  wilt  not  find  it  in  this  world  again. 
Nor  in  another  ;  here,  and  here  alone. 
Is  given  thee  to  suffer  for  God's  sake. 
In  other  worlds  we  shall  more  perfectly 
Serve  Him  and  love  Him,  praise  Him,  work  for  Him, 
Grow  near,  and  nearer  Him  with  all  delight ; 
But  then  we  shall  not  any  more  be  called 
To  suffer,  which  is  our  appointm.ent  here. 
Canst  thou  not  suffer  then  one  hour,  or  two  ? 
***** 

And  while  we  suffer,  let  us  set  our  souls 
To  suffer  perfectly  ;    since  this  alone, 


USES  OF  SUFFERING  25 

The  suffering,  which  is  this  world's  special  grace, 
May  here  be  perfected  and  left  behind. 

E.  Hamilton  King. 

Sacrifice  of  some  sort  there  must  be  in  all  human 
life  ;  it  arouses  either  willing  acceptance  or  grudg- 
ing submission.  But  even  the  willing  sacrifice  has 
two  kinds.  It  may  be  that  which  bends  the  head, 
and  shuts  the  lips,  and  steels  itself  to  bear  in  a  proud 
acknowledgment  of  the  inevitable.  ...  But  there 
is  also  the  sacrifice  which  is  borne  and  even  wel- 
comed, because  it  is  sustained  by  an  uplifting 
trust  in  the  motives  of  the  Power  which  asks  for 
it,  and  in  the  issue  towards  which  it  tends. 

It  is  always  true  that  ''  he  who  saves  his  life  shall 
lose  it "  :  it  is  not  always  true  that  "  he  who  loses 
his  life  shall  save  it."  For  he  must  know  and  trust 
the  ultimate  meaning  of  his  loss.  Our  Lord's 
promise  is,  "  He  who  loses  his  life  for  My  sake  and 
the  GospePs  shall  save  it."  These  additional  words 
take  the  blindness  and  the  bitterness  out  of  sacrifice. 
Sometimes  indeed  the  actual  pain  of  the  sacrifice  is 
not  spared.  Jesus  Himself  felt  it  keenly.  But  the 
spirit  is  sustained  by  the  joy  of  the  issue.  .  .  . 

Never  without  struggle  can  the  kingdom  of 
Heaven  be  attained  :  it  is  the  violent  who  press  into 
it.  To  the  outward  observer  the  strain  may  seem 
hard  and  severe,  but  he  who  knows  and  trusts 


26  TROUBLE 

what  he  is  seeking,  will  find  increasingly  that  his 
faith,  his  sureness  about  the  worth  of  it  all,  lifts  the 
weight  of  his  burden  and  lights  the  darkness  of  the 
way,  and  brings  even  joy  into  the  sacrifice.  The 
spirit  stands  erect  even  when  the  head  is  bowed, 
and  the  cross  of  the  Christian,  like  the  Cross  of 

Christ,  becomes  a  throne. 

Archbishop  Lang. 

Nothing  is  so  humbling  as  to  discover  how  tender 

one  is  over  oneself,  how  hard  towards  others,  how 

cowardly  at  the  shadow  of  a  cross,  how  frivolously 

ready  to  rebound  at  the  least  gleam  of  flattery. 

But   it   is   well.      God   opens   a   very  wonderful 

book  for  our  instruction  when  He  sets  us  reading 

our  own  hearts. 

Fenelon. 

The  uses  of  adversity  are  sweet — when  we  have 
learnt  to  use  them ;  but  the  process  of  acquiring 
them  is  bitter  to  the  extreme,  and  in  the  majority 
of  cases  leaves  indelible  scars  upon  the  soul. 

T.  J.  Hardy. 

Then  welcome  each  rebuff 

That  turns  earth's  smoothness  rough — 

Each  sting  that  bids  nor  sit  nor  stand — but  go  ! 

Be  our  joys  three-parts  pain 


USES   OF  SUFFERING  27 

Strive,  and  hold  cheap  the  strain ; 
Learn,  nor  account  the  pang  ;    dare,  never  grudge  the 
throe ! 

R.  Browning. 

Suffering  borne  in  the  Christian  temper  has 
often  incidental  effects  upon  character.  For  it 
induces  tenderness,  and  strength,  and  spirituality 
of  life.  The  man  who  has  suffered  much  has 
a  keener  insight  into  the  sufferings  of  others,  and 
therefore  a  more  appreciative  sympathy  for  them. 
His  very  voice  and  glance  and  touch  gain  a  magnetic 
power  from  his  pain. 

Nor  is  this  tenderness  purchased  at  the  cost  of 

weakness,  for  suffering  indurates  and  strengthens 

the  entire  person.    Under  all  his  apparent  weakness, 

the  man  of  sorrows  is  strong.     And  thus  his  own 

sorrow  helps  him  to  alleviate  the  sorrow  of  the 

world ;    while,   beside  thus   enhancing  his   social 

efficiency,  suffering  refines  and  purifies  the  inner 

man,    as    a    necessary    consequence    of  the  closer 

communion  with  the  spiritual  world   to  which  it 

calls  him. 

J.  R.  Illingworth. 

Suffering  may  be  desired,  not  as  the  reward  of  a 
kind  of  self-interested  devotion,  but  as  a  condition 
in  which  we  are  brought  nearer  to  the  attainment 
of  an  object  which  is,  in  itself,  worth  all  the  sacri- 


28  TROUBLE 

fices  of  which  man  is  capable.  .  .  .  When  the  saint 
rises  to  fresh  heights  he  realizes  that  all  great 
things  are  in  reality  accomplished  by  God  through 
the  medium  of  man,  and  therefore,  as  far  as  he 
himself  is  concerned,  he  desires  suffering  solely  as 
a  means  of  destroying  self-love  and  everything  that 
tends  to  separate  him  from  the  object  of  his  love. 

Henri  Joly. 

One  adequate  support 
For  the  calamities  of  mortal  life 
Exists,  one  only  :  an  assured  belief 
That  the  procession  of  our  fate,  howe'er 
Sad  or  disturbed,  is  ordered  by  a  Being 
Of  infinite  benevolence  and  power  : 
Whose  everlasting  purposes  embrace 
All  accidents, — converting  them  to  good. 
The  darts  of  anguish  fix  not  where  the  seat 
Of  suffering  hath  been  throughly  fortified 
By  acquiescence  in  the  Will  supreme. 
For  time  and  for  eternity ;  by  faith, — 
Faith  absolute  in  God,  including  hope, 
And  the  defence  that  lies  in  boundless  love 
Of  his  perfections. 

W.  Wordsworth. 

lEbe  Cross  interpreting  Xife* 

The  deep  undertone  of  the  world  is  sadness ; 
a   solemn   bass   occurring  at   measured   intervals, 


USES  OF  SUFFERING  29 

and  heard  through  all  other  tones.  Ultimately, 
all  the  strains  of  this  world's  music  resolve  them- 
selves into  that  tone ;  and  I  believe  that,  rightly 
felt,  the  Cross,  and  the  Cross  alone,  interprets 
the  mournful  mystery  of  life — the  sorrow  of  the 
Highest,  the  Lord  of  Life  ;  the  result  of  error  and 
sin,  but  ultimately  remedial,  purifying,  exalting. 

F.  W,  Robertson. 

*^ 

The  perfect  human  life  is  the  life  of  Christ. 
And  what  is  the  Christ-life  but  sacrifice, — sacrifice 
as  the  supreme  expression  and  ardour  of  self- 
subjecting  love  ?  The  life,  not  of  fulness,  but  of 
sacrifice  of  the  earthly  self  and  the  things  which  go 
to  the  filling  of  it, — the  life  of  willing  sacrifice, 
nay,  of  joy  and  satisfaction  in  sacrifice — the  life 
of  Christ  the  Master,  and  of  those  who  have  found 
their  life  by  realizing  Christ. 

I  do  not  merely  say  this  is  hard  for  me  to  reach, 
with  my  mixed  and  smothered  nature,  hard  to 
practise,  or  to  love ;  it  is  more  than  this — it  is 
hard  for  me  even  to  appreciate  or  understand.  I 
need  purifying  of  habit  and  soul ;  I  need  changed 
mode  and  quickened  powers  of  insight ;  I  need  a 
gradual  initiation,  an  opening  out  of  new  meanings, 
a  shifting  of  the  old  proportions  and  appearances 
of  things — before  I  shall  really  be  able  even  to  un- 
derstand, even  thoroughly  to  believe  in  this — to 


30  TROUBLE 

believe  in  it,  that  is,  not  as  paradox,  but  as  truth  ; 
not  as  misery  but  as  joy  ;  not  as  failure  of  human 
life,  but  as  its  perfectness. 

R.    C.    MOBERLY. 

I  saw  a  Cross  of  burning  gold 
And  jewels  glorious  to  behold  : 

Over  it  a  golden  crown, 
All  the  people  falling  down. 

I  saw  an  ugly  Cross  of  wood. 
On  it  there  were  stains  of  blood  : 

Over  it  a  crown  of  thorn. 
Plaited  for  the  people's  scorn. 

Cross  of  gold,  no  fruit  was  thine, 
Nothing  but  the  empty  shrine. 

Cross  of  wood,  thou  living  tree. 
The  true  Vine  clung  fast  to  thee. 

Mary  E.  Coleridge. 

However  Christ  may  come,  He  will  claim  the 
offering  of  love  moved  by  love,  of  suffering 
hallowed  by  suffering  ;  He  will  bear  in  this  sense 
the  marks  of  the  Cross.  The  truth  finds  expression 
in  a  beautiful  vision  of  S.  Martin.  That  soldier- 
saint,  in  a  time  of  deep  distress  and  perplexity, 
when  it  seemed  that  the  end  of  the  world  must  be 
at  hand,  suddenly,  as  he  prayed,  saw  his  cell  filled 


USES  OF  SUFFERING  31 

with  a  glorious  light.  In  the  centre  stood  a 
figure  of  serene  and  joyous  aspect,  clothed  in  royal 
array,  with  a  jewelled  crown  upon  his  head,  and 
gold-embroidered  shoes  upon  his  feet.  Martin 
was  half-blinded  by  the  sight ;  and  for  a  time  no 
word  was  spoken.  Then  his  visitant  said  :  "  Re- 
cognize, Martin,  him  whom  thou  beholdest.  I  am 
Christ.  I  am  about  to  visit  the  earth  ;  and  it  is 
my  pleasure  to  manifest  myself  to  thee  beforehand." 
When  Martin  made  no  reply,  he  continued  : 
"  Why  dost  thou  hesitate  to  believe  what  thou 
seest  ?  I  am  Christ."  Thereupon  Martin,  as  by 
a  sudden  inspiration,  answered,  "  The  Lord  Jesus 
did  not  foretell  that  He  would  come  arrayed  in 
purple  and  crowned  with  gold.  I  will  not  believe 
that  Christ  has  come,  unless  I  see  Him  in  the 
dress  and  shape  in  which  He  suffered  ;  unless  I  see 
Him  bear  before  my  eyes  the  marks  of  the  Cross." 
Forthwith  the  apparition  vanished,  and  Martin 
knew  that  he  had  been  tempted  by  the  Evil  One. 

Bishop  Westcott. 


purification  Xlfe=long. 

To  all,  sooner  or  later,  Christ  comes  to  baptize 
them  with  fire.  But  do  not  think  that  the  baptism 
of  fire  comes  once  for  all  to  a  man,  in  some  one 


32  TROUBLE 

terrible  affliction,  some  one  awful  conviction  of 
his  own  sinfulness  and  nothingness.  With  most, 
it  goes  on,  month  after  month,  year  after  year. 
By  secret  trials,  chastenings,  which  none  but  they 
and  God  can  understand,  the  Lord  is  cleansing 
them  from  their  secret  faults,  and  making  them  to 
understand  wisdom  secretly  ;  burning  out  of  them 
the  chaff  of  self-will,  and  self-conceit,  and  vanity, 
and  leaving  only  the  pure  gold  of  righteousness. 
How  many  sweet  and  holy  souls,  who  look  cheer- 
ful enough  before  the  eyes  of  men,  have  their  secret 
sorrows.  They  carry  their  cross  unseen  all  day 
long,  and  lie  down  to  sleep  on  it  at  night ;  and 
they  will  carry  it  perhaps  for  years  and  years,  to 
their  grave  ;  and  none  but  they  and  Christ  will 
ever  know  what  it  was. ...  So  does  the  Lord  watch 
His  people,  and  tries  them  with  fire,  as  the  refiner 
of  silver  sits  by  his  furnaces  watching  the  melted 
metal  till  he  knows  that  it  is  purged  from  all  its  dross 
by  seeing  the  image  of  his  own  face  reflected  on  it. 

Charles  Kingsley. 

"  The  final  state  which  we  are  to  contemplate 
with  hope,  and  to  seek  by  discipline,  is  that  in  which 
our  will  shall  be  one  with  the  will  of  God  ;  not 
merely  shall  submit  to  it,  not  merely  shall  follow 
after  it,  but  shall  live  and  move  with  it,  even  as  the 
pulse  of  the  blood  in  the  extremities  acts  with  the 


USES  OF  SUFFERING  33 

central  movement  of  the  heart.  And  this  is 
to  be  obtained  through  a  double  process ;  the 
first,  that  of  checking,  repressing,  quelling  the 
inclination  of  the  will  to  act  with  reference  to  self 
as  a  centre ;  this  is  to  mortify  it.  The  second,  to 
cherish,  exercise,  and  expand  its  new  and  heavenly 
power  of  acting  according  to  the  will  of  God,  first, 
perhaps,  by  painful  efforts  in  great  feebleness  and 
with  many  inconsistencies,  but  with  continually 
augmenting  regularity  and  force,  until  obedience 
becomes  a  necessity  of  second  nature." 

W.  E.   Gladstone  (John  Morley). 


Temptation  is  the  natural  way  by  which  the 
Christian  heart  is  at  once  tested  and  educated ; 
and  painful  as  the  struggle  with  it  is,  the  Apostle 
bids  us  count  it  *'all  joy"  when  we  have  to  go 
through  such  temptation  as  comes  to  us  by  no 
fault  of  our  own,  because  of  the  good  result  which 
it  brings  when  rightly  used. 


A.  J.  Mason. 


* 


A,G, 


XCbe  ©utcome  of  Sacrifice- 

ZTriumpb* 

T  RECKON   that   the   sufferings  of   this   present   time 

are  not  worthy  to  he  compared  with  the  glory  which 

shall  be  revealed  to  us-ward.  Rom.  viii.  i8. 

For  I  am  persuaded  that  neither  death,  nor  life,  nor 
angels,  nor  principalities,  nor  things  present,  nor  things 
to  come,  nor  powers,  nor  height,  nor  depth,  nor  any 
other  creature,  shall  be  able  to  separate  us  from  the  love  of 
God,  which  is  in  Christ  Jesus  our  Lord.  Rom.  viii.  38, 39. 

"  Father,  save  Me  from  this  hour :  but  for  this  cause 
came  I  unto  this  hour.  Father,  glorify  Thy  name."  There 
came  therefore  a  Voice  out  of  heaven,  saying,  "  /  have  both 
glorified  it,  and  will  glorify  it  again.''     s.  John  xii.  27,  28. 

He  that  overcometh,  I  will  give  to  him  to  sit  doum  with 
Me  in  My  throne,  as  I  also  overcame,  and  sat  down  with 
My  Father  in  His  throne.  Rev.  iii.  21. 

/  rejoice  in  my  sufferings  for  your  sake,  and  fill  up  on  my 
part  that  which  is  lacking  of  the  afflictions  of  Christ  in  my 
flesh  for  His  body's  sake,  which  is  the  Church.         Col.  i.  24. 

For  our  light  affliction,  which  is  for  the  moment,  worketh 
for  us  more  and  more  exceedingly  an  eternal  weight  of 
glory.  2  Cor.  iv.  17. 

These  are  they  which  come  out  of  the  great  tribulation, 
and  they  washed  their  robes,  and  made  them  white  in 
the  blood  of  the  Lamb.  Rev.  vii.  14. 

34 


THE  OUTCOME  OF  SACRIFICE  35 

And  I  heard  a  great  voice  out  of  the  throne,  saying. 
Behold,  the  tabernacle  of  God  is  with  men,  and  He  shall 
dwell  with  them,  and  they  shall  be  His  people,  and  God 
Himself  shall  be  with  them,  and  be  their  God. 

And  He  shall  wipe  away  every  tear  from  their  eyes : 
and  death  shall  be  no  more  ;  neither  shall  there  be  mourning, 
nor  crying,  nor  pain,  any  more  ;  the  first  things  are  passed 
away. 

He  that  overcometh  shall  inherit  these  things  ;  and  I 
will  be  His  God  and  he  shall  be  My  son.      Rev.  xxi.  3,  4,  7 


We  beseech  Thee,  O  Lord,  to  preserve  with  watchful 
love  those  whom  Thou  hast  cleansed  :  that  those  who 
have  been  redeemed  by  Thy  Passion  may  rejoice  in 
Thy  Resurrection. — Gelasian  Sacramentary. 

O  Almighty  and  most  merciful  God,  of  Thy  bounti- 
ful goodness  keep  us,  we  beseech  Thee,  from  all  things 
that  may  hurt  us  ;  that  we,  being  ready,  both  in  body 
and  soul,  may  cheerfully  accomplish  those  things 
that  Thou  wouldest  have  done  :  through  Jesus  Christ 
our  Lord. — Twentieth  Sunday  after  Trinity. 

St.  John's  record  of  the  Passion  is  from  the 
beginning  to  the  end  a  revelation  of  majesty. 
No  voice  of  suffering,  no  horror  of  thick  darkness, 
find  a  place  in  it.  Every  indignity  is  so  accepted 
by  the  Lord  as  to  become  part  of  a  gracious  and 
willing  sacrifice.  The  words  with  which  He 
goes  forth  to  die  are  a  declaration  of  a  victory 
which  has  been  already  achieved  :  "  I  have  over- 
come the  world."  The  words  which  precede 
His  voluntary  death    are  the  ratification  of  a 


36  TROUBLE 

work  perfectly  accomplished  :  "  It  is  finished." 
The  betrayal  is  fruitless  till  He  places  Himself 
in  the  hands  of  His  enemies.  He  is  Himself 
the  Judge  of  His  judges.  Hanging  upon  the 
Cross  the  Lord  discharged  with  calm  and  tender 
authority  the  last  offices  of  personal  affection, 
the  last  requirements  of  the  Scripture  which 
He  came  to  fulfil.  He  gave  up  His  Spirit  :  and 
still  He  lived  through  death. 

The  sovereignty  of  Christ  from  the  Cross  is 
a  new  sovereignty.  It  has  destroyed  for  ever 
the  formula  of  material  tyranny  that  *' might  is 
right."  It  has  put  to  shame  the  self-assertion  of 
false  heroism.  It  has  surrounded  with  imperish- 
able dignity  the  completeness  of  sacrifice.  It 
has  made  clear  to  the  pure  of  heart  that  the 
prerogative  of  authority  is  wider  service. 

Bishop  Westcott. 

There  should  be  no  greater  comfort  to  Christ- 
ian persons  than  to  be  made  like  unto  Christ, 
by  suffering  patiently  adversities,  troubles  and 
sicknesses.  For  He  Himself  went  not  up  to  joy, 
but  first  He  suffered  pain  :  He  entered  not  into 
His  glory  before  He  was  crucified.  So  truly  our 
way  to  eternal  joy  is  to  suffer  here  with  Christ ; 


THE  OUTCOME  OF  SACRIFICE  37 

and  our  door  to  enter  into  eternal  life  is  gladly 
to  die  with  Christ  :  that  we  may  rise  again  from 
death,  and  dwell  with  Him  in  everlasting  life. 

Visitation  of  the  Sick,  Book  of  Common  Prayer. 

Everywhere  the  greater  joy  is  ushered  in   by 
the  greater  pain. 

Ellen  Watson. 


The  outline  of  the  life  of  Jesus  Christ,  in  all 
its  human  essentials,  is  that  of  a  failure  as  com- 
plete as  can  be  conceived  ;  and  yet  the  historic 
figure  we  know  and  think  of  stands  out  in  all 
human  essentials  as  a  Conqueror.  .  .  .  And, 
re-examining  that  life,  in  the  light  of  its  own 
standard,  we  shall  see  One  Who  so  truly  overcame, 
both  in  Himself  and  in  His  influence,  that  nothing 
seems  to  yield  such  copious  hint  of  the  solution 
of  life's  mystery  as  does  His  "  failure."  .  .  . 

His  failure  stands  not  in  a  loss  of  spirituality, 
but  in  the  superabundance  and  intensity  of  it. 
The  isolation  of  His  Spirit  did  not  result  in  a 
diminution  of  the  ideal,  any  more  than  did 
disappointment  sour,  or  poverty  embitter  Him 
The  bare  outline  of  His  life  is  harsh  and  forbid- 
ding ;    it  is  that  of  a  failure  :     but  upon  near 


38  TROUBLE 

approach,  it  is  found  to  be  lit  by  an  inner  light, 
and  in  the  light  of  that  personal  life  we  see  a  form 
of  wondrous  beauty  and  commanding  awe.  In 
a  word,  the  -personality  of  Jesus  Christ  is  as  sublime 
a  triumph  as  His  life  is  supreme  among  failures. 

T.  J.  Hardy. 

Work,  be  unhappy,  but  bear  life,  my  son  ! 

R.  Browning. 


Thank  God  for  the  essential  sorrowfulness  of 
human  life  !  Do  we  cry  out  against  it  ?  Does 
it  seem  to  us  all  punishment  or  all  wretchedness  ? 
Is  it  mere  paradox  to  claim  it,  in  any  sense,  on 
the  side  of  blessing,  or  to  connect  with  it,  even 
for  a  moment,  the  thought  of  praise  ?  It  is  not, 
indeed,  the  ultimate  condition  of  blessedness. 
The  very  blessing  upon  the  tears  of  the  weepers 
consists  in  this,  that  they  shall  be  comforted. 
The  sowing  in  tears  is  a  pledge  of  the  ultimate 
reaping  in  joy. 

There  shall  come  a  time  indeed,  when  "  God 
shall  wipe  away  all  tears  from  their  eyes  :  and 
there  shall  be  no  more  death,  neither  sorrow, 
nor  crying,  neither  shall  there  be  any  more  pain," 
but  not  in  the  existing  order  of  things — only 
when  it  can  be  said,  as  explanation  and  cause, 


THE  OUTCOME  OF  SACRIFICE  39 

"  for  the  former  things  are  passed  away."  Till 
then  it  is  sorrow  which  itself  remains  as  a 
distinctive  note  of  blessedness  :  "  Blessed  are  they 
that  mourn."  "  Blessed  are  ye  that  weep  now." 
In  this  world  there  is  privilege,  essentially,  in 
tears.  .  .  .  Thank  God  for  sorrow  !  And  may 
the  day  never  dawn  on  my  earthly  life  when  the 
discipline  of  sorrow  shall  so  have  become  a 
stranger  to  my  being  that  my  heart  shall  be 
incapable  any  longer  of  the  anguish,  which  is 
the  nobleness  of  sorrowing. 

R.    C.    MOBERLY. 


In  the  Cross  is  salvation,  in  the  Cross  is  life, 
in  the  Cross  is  protection  against  our  enemies, 
in  the  Cross  is  infusion  of  heavenly  sweetness, 
in  the  Cross  is  strength  of  mind,  in  the  Cross  joy 
of  spirit,  in  the  Cross  the  height  of  virtue,  in 
the  Cross  the  perfection  of  sanctity. 

The  Cross  therefore  is  always  ready  and  every- 
where waits  for  thee. 

For  not  even  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  was  even 
one  hour  without  the  anguish  of  His  Passion, 
so  long  as  He  lived.  ''  Christ  "  (saith  He)  "  must 
needs  suffer,  and  rise  again  from  the  dead,  and 
so  enter  into  His  glory." 

And  how  dost  thou  seek  any  other  way  than 


40  TROUBLE 

His   royal   way,  which  is  the   way  of   the   Holy 
Cross  ? 

Drink  of  the  Lord's  cup  with  hearty  affection, 
if  thou  desire  to  be  His  friend,  and  to  have  part 
with  Him. 

Imitation  of  Christy  Book  II,  xii. 

Greatly  to  live  is  such  a  burthen  of  joy  that 
the  sharpest  pain  of  sacrifice  is  a  welcome  easement 
of  it.  '^  Consummatum  est."  The  Cross  is 
only  a  mitigation  of  the  consummation. 

It  becomes  a  fact  of  experience  to  those  who 

truly  live,  that   not   only   must   we  give  up   all 

in  order  to  obtain  all,  but  that  we  must  do  so 

before  we  attain  to  any  assurance  that  such  will 

be  our  reward.     Where,  otherwise,  would  be  the 

sacrifice  ? 

Coventry  Patmore. 

Kind 
Calm  years,  exacting  their  accompt 
Of  pain,  mature  the  mind. 

R.  Browning. 

Rejoice  that  man  is  hurled 
From  change  to  change  unceasingly, 
His  soul's  wings  never  furled. 

Ibid. 


THE  OUTCOME  OF  SACRIFICE  41 

The  spirit  of  sacrifice  is,  we  can  see,  the  revela- 
tion of  a  larger  life  :  and  because  it  is  so,  it  is  also 
a  revelation  of  victorious  pov^er.  The  life  is  one, 
and  through  its  action  soul  can  reach  soul.  We 
have  all  been  able  from  time  to  time,  in  the  most 
expressive  phrase,  to  enter  into  the  griefs,  the 
wrongs,  the  failures,  of  others,  and  as  we  have 
done  so,  we  have  found  within  our  reach  a  power 
of  relief  and  restoration  proportioned  to  our 
power  of  sympathy.  If  we  may  dare  to  use  the 
phrase,  there  is  a  virtue  which  goes  out  from  him 
who  truly  feels  for  another  to  the  object  of  his 
love,  not  without  effort,  not  without  loss.  We 
must  feel  that  which  we  alleviate.  There  is  a 
sense  in  which  we  must  pay  for  all  we  give. 

The  instinctive  pleasure  which  is  felt  in  natural 
gifts,  in  wealth  and  strength,  and  beauty  and 
rank  and  intellect,  is  a  call  and  a  promise,  a  call  to 
grateful  use,  and  a  promise  of  effective  influence. 
But  all  these  things  are  not  in  themselves  blessings 
in  which  we  can  rest,  but  opportunities  of  bless- 
ing. They  must  be  consecrated  in  service  before 
they  can  be  a  true  joy  to  their  possessors  ;  and 
everywhere  there  is  the  same  condition  of  hallow- 
ing. Conflict  goes  before  the  victory  :  discipline 
before  the  prize  :  anxious  questionings  before 
sure  love  :   travail  pangs  before  the  new  birth. 

Bishop  Westcott. 


42  TROUBLE 

Therefore,  to  whom  turn  I  but  to  Thee,  the  ineffable 

Name  ? 
Builder  and  Maker,  Thou,   of  houses  not    made  with 

hands  ! 
What,  have  fear  of  change  from  Thee  Who  art  ever  the 

same  ? 
Doubt  that  Thy  power  can  fill  the  heart  that  Thy  power 

expands  ? 

There  shall  never  be  one  lost  good  !     What  was  shall 

live  as  before; 
The  evil  is  null,  is  nought,  is  silence  implying  sound; 
What  was  good  shall  be  good,  with,  for  evil,  so  much 

good  more; 
On  the  earth  the  broken  arcs ;  in  the  heaven,  a  perfect 

round. 


All  we  have  willed  or  hoped  or  dreamed  of  good  shall 

exist ; 
Not  its  semblance,  but  itself;   no  beauty,  nor  good,  nor 

power 
Whose  voice  has  gone  forth,  but  each  survives  for  the 

melodist  ? 
When  Eternity  confirms  the  conception  of  an  hour. 
The  high  that  proved  too  high,  the  heroic  for  earth  too 

hard, 
The  passion  that  left  the  ground  to  lose  itself  in  the 

sky. 
Are  music  sent  up  to  God  by  the  lover  and  the   bard ; 
Enough  that  he  heard  it  once  ;   we  shall  hear  it  by  and 

bye. 


THE  OUTCOME  OF  SACRIFICE  43 

And  what  is  our  failure  here  but  a  triumph's  evidence 
For  the  fulness  of  the  days  ?      Have  we  withered    or 

agonized  ? 
Why  else  was  the  pause  prolonged  but  that  singing  might 

issue  thence  ? 
Why  rushed  the  discords  in  but  that  harmony  should  be 

prized  ? 
Sorrow  is  hard  to  bear,  and  doubt  is  slow  to  clear, 
Each  sufferer  says  his  say,  his  scheme  of  the  weal  and  the 

woe ; 
But  God  has  a  few  of  us  whom  He  whispers  in  the  ear  ; 
The  rest  may  reason  and  welcome  :    'tis  we  musicians 

know. 

R.  Browning. 


3fru(tfulne90. 

"  /,  if  I  be  lifted  up  from  the  earth,  will  draw  all  men 
unto  Myself.''  S.  John  xii.  32. 

He  shall  see  of  the  travail  of  his  soul,  and  shall  he  satisfied : 
by  his  knowledge  shall  my  righteous  servant  justify  mxiny  : 
and  he  shall  bear  their  iniquities.  Isa.  liii.  11. 

Except  a  grain  of  wheat  fall  into  the  earth  and  die,  it 
abideth  by  itself  alone  ;  but  if  it  die,  it  beareth  much  fruit. 

He  that  loveth  his  life  loseth  it ;  and  he  that  hateih  his  life 
in  this  world  shall  keep  it  unto  life  eternal.  S.  John  xii.  24,  25. 

He  emptied  ^Himself,  taking  the  form  of  a  servant,  being 
made  in  the  likeness  of  men. 

And  being  found  in  fashion  as  a  man.  He  humbled  Him- 
self, becoming  obedient  even  unto  death,  yea,  the  death 
of  the  Cross.  Phil.  ii.  7,  8. 


44  TROUBLE 

O  God  of  all  grace,  Who  hast  called  us  into  Thine 
eternal  glory  in  Christ,  look  mercifully  upon  Thy 
servants,  and  after  that  they  have  suffered  a  little 
while,  make  them  perfect,  stablish,  strengthen,  and 
settle  them. 

We  beseech  Thee,  most  merciful  God  and  Father, 
that  as  Thou  givest  Thy  servants  lengthened  suffering, 
so  Thou  wilt  give  them  faith  and  patience  in  the  accep- 
tance of  Thy  will,  to  offer  themselves  up  without 
reserve  to  Thee  :  that  they  may  be  purged  from  all 
the  remains  of  their  natural  self,  and  may  be  accepted 
of  Thee  :  through  Jesus  Christ  our  Lord. — Sursum 
Corda, 


Christ  showed  that  sacrifice,  self -surrender, 
death,  is  the  beginning  and  the  course  and  the 
aim  and  the  essential  principle  of  the  higher  life. 
To  find  life  in  our  own  way,  to  wish  to  save  it, 
to  seek  to  gain  it,  to  love  it,  is,  He  proclaims,  to 
miss  it  altogether.  .  .  .  The  law  of  sacrifice  is 
based  on  essential  moral  relations,  justified  by 
the  facts  of  common  experience,  welcomed  by 
the  universal  conscience.  .  .  .  Sacrifice  alone 
is  fruitful.  .  .  .  The  essence  of  sin  is  selfishness 
in  respect  of  men,  and  self-assertion  in  respect 
of  God,  the  unloving  claim  of  independence,  the 
arrogant  isolation  of  our  interests.  .  .  .  That 
which  we  use  for  ourselves  perishes  ignobly : 
that  which  He  uses  for  us,  but  not  on  us,  proves 
the  beginning  of  a  fuller  joy. 


THE  OUTCOME  OF  SACRIFICE  45 

Isolation  is  the  spring  of  death  ;  life  is  revealed 
through  sacrifice.  .  .  .  Vicarious  toil,  pain,  suf- 
fering, is  the  very  warp  of  life.  When  the  Divine 
light  falls  upon  it,  it  becomes  transformed  into 
sacrifice.  .  .  .  Not  one  tear,  one  pang,  one 
look  of  tender  compassion,  one  cry  of  pitying 
anguish,  one  strain  of  labouring  arm,  offered  in 
the  strength  of  God  for  the  love  of  man,  has 
been  in  vain.  They  have  entered  into  the  great 
life  with  a  power  to  purify,  and  cheer,  and  nerve, 
measured  not  by  the  standard  of  our  judgment, 
but  by  the  completeness  of  the  sacrifice  which 
they  represent. 

Bishop  Westcott. 


"  Unless  above  himself  he  can  erect  himself, 
how  mean  a  thing  is  man."  He  that  sets  himself 
with  his  whole  heart  on  this  task,  will  find  at 
some  stage  or  other  of  the  work,  that,  like  Abra- 
ham, he  has  to  offer  up  his  firstborn,  his  dearest 
possession,  his  "  ruling  love,"  whatever  that 
may  be.  He  must  actually  lift  the  knife, — not 
so  much  to  prove  his  sincerity  to  God  as  to  him- 
self ;  for  no  man  who  has  not  thus  won  assurance 
of  himself  can  advance  surely.  But  he  will  find 
that  he  has  killed  a  ram,  and  that  his  firstborn 


46  TROUBLE 

is  safe,  and  exalted  by  his  offering  to  be  the  father 
of  a  great  nation  ;  and  he  will  understand  why 
God  called  the  place  in  which  this  sacrifice  was 
offered  "  The  land  of  vision." 

Coventry  Patmore. 


Is  it  for  nothing  we  grow  old  and  weak, 
We  whom  God  loves  ?     When  pain  ends,  gain  ends  too. 

R.  Browning. 


^ 


To  many  the  probleui  of  pain  seems  to  demand, 
intellectually,  a  philosophy  not  yet  arrived  among 
us.  Suppose,  however,  that  the  solution  should 
be  afforded  by  exferience.  Suppose  our  exceed- 
ing bitter  cry  should  be  answered  by  certain 
facts  presented  by  life  itself,  and  therefore,  while 
uncontrovertible,  requiring,  in  order  to  be  under- 
stood, only  the  open  mind,  and  the  feeling  heart. 
Suppose  that  life  should  answer  our  challenge 
at  the  very  point  where  the  feeling  that  gives 
rise  to  that  challenge  is  most  bitter,  that  as  it 
is  suffering  that  gives  the  edge  to  our  despair, 
so  it  should  be  suffering  which,  in  revealing 
the  possibilities  of  the  individual  soul  under  its 


THE  OUTCOME  OF  SACRIFICE  47 

discipline,  should  open  to  our  view  a  larger  and 
enduring  life. 

T.  J.  Hardy. 

We  possess  exactly  what  we  use.  We  know 
that  our  strength  is  increased  by  the  measure  of 
every  trial  which  we  resolutely  sustain ;  that 
each  power  with  which  we  are  endowed  can  pass 
through  death  to  a  resurrection  ;  that  failure, 
when  it  is  felt  to  be  failure,  is  **  a  triumph's 
evidence  for  the  fulness  of  the  days."  We  know 
that  it  is  blessed  rather  to  give  than  to  receive, 
to  kindle  love  by  loving,  even  as  God  first  loved 
us,  than  to  wait  till  we  can  acknowledge  the 
respect  paid  to  our  worth. 

We  know  that  they  are  happiest  who  lose 
themselves  in  the  cares  and  joys  and  strivings  of 
others ;  who  render  whatever  they  have  to  a 
common  cause  .  .  .  who  have  found,  through  the 
teaching  of  a  surrendered  life,  the  power  of 
sacrifice  ;  found  that  sacrifice  alone  is  fruitful, 
fruitful  to  him  for  whom  it  is  made,  through 
the  manifestation  of  a  new  moral  force,  fruitful 
to  him  by  whom  it  is  made  through  the  quickening 
of  a  wider  fellowship,  fruitful,  and  the  source  of 
joy. 

Bishop  Westcott, 


48  TROUBLE 

With  the  gradual  acceptance  of  sorrow  begins 
its  transforming  power.  Only,  acceptance  of 
sorrow,  how  much  it  means  !  It  is  not  a  sullen 
and  silent,  still  less  is  it  an  angry  endurance.  It 
is  not  enough  merely  that  I  should  turn  to  other 
things,  trying  so  to  deaden  or  forget  the  wretched- 
ness which  I  cannot  avoid,  but  which  my  whole 
soul  and  will  do  really,  in  their  dumbness  and 
numbness,  protest  against  still.  This  may  be 
to  tolerate,  but  it  is  not  to  accept.  The  effort 
of  prayer  by  which  the  Man  Jesus  finally  accepted 
in  Gethsemane  His  Passion  and  Death  involved 
something  far  deeper  than  this.  When  He  fully 
accepted  the  cup,  the  cup  was  no  longer  His 
necessity,  but  the  choice  of  His  will.  .  .  .  And 
the  necessities  which  are  laid  upon  us,  necessities 
though  they  be,  it  is  our  privilege  to  be  allowed 
to  transform  them,  even  by  the  tardy  acceptance 
of  our  will,  into  willing  offerings. 

The  bending  of  will  to  will,  the  transfiguring 
of  our  will  into  His  will, — this  is  the  daily  aspira- 
tion and  longing  of  every  Christian  man  who 
has  learnt  to  say  "  Our  Father."  And  when 
all  resistance  of  will  has  died  at  last  away,  when 
the  life's  sorrow  or  pain  is  no  longer  merely  a 
fact  of  the  life's  past  history — no  longer,  indeed, 
at  all  a  painful  or  unwelcome  fact — but  is  part 


THE  OUTCOME  OF  SACRIFICE  49 

itself  of  the  soul's  free  will  and  choice, — then 
the  sorrow  has  wrought  indeed  its  abiding  work ; 
then  the  cross  has  become  as  an  altar-throne  of 
voluntary  sacrifice  ;  then  the  will  of  the  poor 
human  sufferer  is  transfigured  into  something 
higher  and  purer  than  himself — something,  in- 
deed, with  which  he  seemed  just  now  in  terrible 
contradiction,  but  which  he  finds,  and  cannot 
but  find,  the  more  he  approaches  it,  to  be  after 
all  no  essential  contradiction  or  denial  of  himself, 
but  the  fullest  completeness  and  joy  of  his  own 
real  being. 

R.    C.    MOBERLY. 


Measure  thy  life  by  loss  instead  of  gain  ; 
Not  by  the  wine  drunk,  but  the  wine  poured  forth  ; 
For  love's  strength  standeth  in  love's  sacrifice  ; 
And  whoso  suffers  most  hath  most  to  give. 

#  *  *  #  * 

God  said  to  Man  and  Woman,  "  By  thy  sweat, 
And  by  thy  travail,  thou  shalt  conquer  earth  ;  " 
Not,  by  thy  ease  or  pleasure  : — ^and  no  good 
Or  glory  of  this  life  but  comes  by  pain. 
How  poor  were  earth  if  all  its  martyrdoms, 
If  all  its  struggling  sighs  of  sacrifice, 
Were  swept  away  ;  and  all  were  satiate — smooth  ; 
If  this  were  such  a  heaven  of  soul  and  sense 
As  some  have  dreamed  of  ; — and  we  human  still, 


50  TROUBLE 

Nay,  we  were  fashioned  not  for  perfect  peace 

In  this  world,  how-so-ever  in  the  next  : 

And  what  we  win  and  hold  is  through  some  strife. 

E.  Hamilton  King. 


The  immortality  which  Christ  proclaimed 
in  His  own  Person  and  life  had  indeed  been 
adumbrated  in  deeds  of  valour  and  lives  of  heroic 
self-sacrifice,  but  as  a  revelation  of  life^  of  the 
true  and  proper  life  of  man,  it  was  as  new  as  it 
has  ever  since  been  unique.  "  I  am  come  that 
they  might  have  life  "was  the  burden  of  all  He 
taught  and  did  and  suffered  :  and  but  for  that 
"  coming  "  it  is  impossible  to  conceive  of  our  eyes 
being  opened  to  the  measureless  possibilities  of 
our  spiritual  life.  When  S.  Paul  exclaimed  in 
the  simple  rendering  of  Luther,  "  Christ  is  my 
/z/^,"  he  defined  what  immortality  really  is. 
The  triumph  lies  in  the  instinct  to  triumph; 
the  extension  of  life  in  the  quality  of  the  life. 

T.  J.  Hardy. 


5n  XTime  of  Sickness 

penitence— jfattb-®be5(ence 


penitence. 


/  acknowledged  my  sin  unto  thee,  and  mine  iniquity  have 
I  not  hid  :  I  said,  I  will  confess  my  transgressions  unto  the 
Lord  ;   and  Thou  forgavest  the  iniquity  of  my  sin. 

Ps.  xxxii.  5,  6. 

Have  mercy  upon  me,  0  Ood,  according  to  Thy  loving- 
kindness  :  According  to  the  multitude  of  Thy  tender 
mercies  blot  out  my  transgressions. 

Wash  me  throughly  from  mine  iniquity,  And  cleanse  me 
from  my  sin.  Ps.  li.  i,  2. 

Out  of  the  depths  have  I  cried  unto  Thee,  0  Lord — Lord, 
hear  my  voice  : 

Let  thine  ears  be  attentive  to  the  voice  of  my  supplica- 
tions. Ps.  CXXX.  I,  2. 

Enter  not  into  judgment  with  Thy  servant ;  For  in 
Thy  sight  shall  no  man  living  be  justified.     Ps.  cxliii.  2 . 

Remember  not  the  sins  of  my  youth,  nor  my  transgres^^ 
sions  :  According  to  Thy  loving  kindness  remember  Thou 
me,  for  Thy  goodness'  sake,  0  Lord.  Ps,  xxv.  7. 

Against  Thee,  Thee  only  have  I  sinned.  And  done  that 
which  is  evil  in  Thy  sight.  Ps.  li.  4. 

Father,  I  have  sinned  against  heaven,  and  in  Thy  sight  : 
I  am  no  more  worthy  to  be  called  Thy  son.   S.  Luke  xv.  21. 

Ye  shall  remember  your  ways,  and  all  your  doings, 
wherein  ye  have  polluted  yourselves  ;  and  ye  shall  loathe 
yourselves  in  your  own  sight  for  all  your  evils  that  ye  have 
committed,  Ezek.  xx.  43. 

*h 

53 


54  IN  TIME  OF  SICKNESS 

Act  of  Contrition. 

O  my  God,  I  hate,  for  love  of  Thee,  all  the  sins  by 
which  I  have  ever  offended  Thee,  and  I  long  to  hate 
them  more.  Help  me  by  Thy  grace  to  resist  tempta- 
tion, and  to  avoid  all  that  can  lead  me  into  sin. 

Almighty  and  everlasting  God,  Who  hatest  nothing 
that  Thou  hast  made,  and  dost  forgive  the  sins  of 
all  them  that  are  penitent :  Create  and  make  in  us 
new  and  contrite  hearts,  that  we,  worthily  lamenting 
our  sins,  and  acknowledging  our  wretchedness,  may 
obtain  of  Thee,  the  God  of  all  mercy,  perfect  remission 
and  forgiveness  :  through  Jesus  Christ,  our  Lord. — 
Collect  jor  Ash  Wednesday. 

Grant,  we  beseech  Thee,  merciful  Lord,  to  Thy 
faithful  people  pardon  and  peace,  that  they  may  be 
cleansed  from  all  their  sins,  and  serve  Thee  with  a 
quiet  mind  :  through  Jesus  Christ  our  Lord. — Collect 
jor  21st  Sunday  ajter  Trinity. 

We  beseech  Thee,  O  Lord,  to  grant  unto  us  the 
knowledge  of  Thy  divine  wisdom,  and  in  Thy  loving- 
kindness  to  clothe  us  with  the  armour  of  righteousness  ; 
turn  upon  us  the  eyes  of  Thy  grace  and  mercy,  who 
confess  our  iniquities,  that  our  sins  being  covered  with 
Thy  pardon  and  clemency,  and  being  justified  with 
Thy  Saints  and  elect,  we  may  rejoice  with  them, 
world  without  end,  through  Jesus  Christ  our  Lord. 

Convcraion* 

Three  things  are  necessary  to  penitence  :  in 
the  heart — contrition  ;  in  the  mouth— confes- 
sion ;    in  the  life — amendment. 

S.  Chrysostom. 


PENITENCE  55 

A  true  thorough  conversion  of  heart  lies  in  a 
hearty  will  perfectly  ready  to  sacrifice  all  to  God. 
By  a  hearty  will  I  mean  that  the  will  is  firmly 
and  irrevocably  set  to  withhold  nothing  within 
its  control  from  God,  and  to  submit  to  whatever 
crosses  we  may  have  to  bear,  perhaps  always,  in 
order  to  fulfil  His  will.  Such  unreserved  renun- 
ciation and  self-devotion  are  the  most  real  con- 
version. As  to  conscious  sorrow  for  sin,  one 
may  be  thankful  for  it  when  it  exists ;  when  one 
feels  the  lack  thereof,  it  is  best  to  humble  oneself 
quietly  before  God,  without  endeavouring  to 
force  it,  being  rather  content  to  be  faithful  in 
all  things,  and  look  to  God  in  all. 

Fenelon. 

As  the  eye  cannot  turn  from  darkness  to  light 
without  the  whole  body,  so  too,  when  the  eye  of 
the  soul  is  turned  round,  the  whole  soul  must 
be  turned  from  the  world  of  generation  to  that 
of  being,  and  become  able  to  endure  the  sight 
of  being,  and  of  the  brightest  and  best  of  being 
— that  is  to  say,  of  the  good.  And  this  is  con- 
version .  .  .  not  implanting  eyes,  for  they  exist 
already,  but  giving  them  a  right  direction,  which 
they  have  not. 

Plato. 


56  IN   TIME  OF  SICKNESS 

If  we  could  call  off  our  minds  from  other 
things,  and  set  them  on  grief  for  our  sins,  yet  it 
is  only  God's  Spirit  that  can  work  our  hearts 
to  this  grief ;  and  for  this  end,  perhaps  God 
holds  us  off  from  it,  to  teach  us  that  He  is  the 
Teacher  of  the  heart  to  grieve.  And  thereupon 
it  is  our  duty  to  wait,  till  He  reveal  ourselves 
so  far  to  ourselves,  as  to  stir  up  His  affection  in  us. 

Richard  Sibbes. 

1  bear  upon  my  brow  the  sign 

Of  sorrow  and  of  pain  : 
Alas  !  no  hopeful  cross  is  mine, 

It  is  the  mark  of  Cain. 

The  course  of  passion,  and  the  fret 

Of  godless  hope  and  fear — 
Toil,  care  and  guilt — their  hues  have  set. 

And  fixed  that  sternness  there. 

Saviour  !  wash  out  the  imprinted  shame  ; 

That  I  no  more  may  pine, 
Sin's  martyr,  though  not  meet  to  claim 

Thy  Cross,  a  Saint  of  Thine. 

J.  H.  Newman. 

Unheeded,  the  unknown  God  cries  out  in  the 
heart  of  man  by  the  voice  of  conscience  :  ''  Why 
persecutest  thou  Me  ?  "  He  cries  out  to  us  as 
one  most  intimate  with  us  from  our  childhood, 


PENITENCE  57 

calling  us,  as  would  a  parent  or  a  brother,  by  our 
own  name.  He  calls  out  in  His  pain  and  anguish, 
His  hunger  and  thirst,  from  that  spiritual  Calvary 
in  our  soul,  where  we  crucify  Him  daily  and  put 
Him  to  an  open  shame,  resisting,  tormenting, 
persecuting  Him.  And  yet,  in  some  sense  unwit- 
tingly ;  for  so  close  is  He  to  us  that  in  thought 
we  confound  that  holy  will  that  strives  and 
works  in  us,  with  our  own.  For  ''  closer  is  He 
than  breathing,  and  nearer  than  hands  and  feet." 

"  Who  art  Thou  ?  "  we  answer  to  His  cry  of 
sharp  pain,  when,  through  His  grace,  this  sense 
of  "  otherness  "  is  brought  home  to  us  for  the 
first  time,  and  we  find  that  in  betraying,  despising 
and  resisting  our  conscience  we  have  all  along 
been  betraying,  despising  and  resisting  our  God, 
as  real  actors  in  that  supreme  tragedy  which  the 
historical  Passion  of  Christ  but  symbolizes  and 
makes  visible  to  our  imagination.  Even  when 
we  are  not  crucifying  Him  afresh  by  flagrant  sin, 
we  are  ever  tormenting  and  persecuting  Him 
by  negligence,  by  recklessness,  by  skirting  the 
edge  of  sin's  precipice,  so  that  He  is  never  at 
rest  or  free  from  anxiety. 

George  Tyrrell. 

The  word  sin  implies  the  existence  of  some- 


58  IN  TIME  OF  SICKNESS 

thing  which  ought  not  to  be  where  it  is  ;  in  using 
it,  we  set  up  an  external  standard  and  condemn 
what  fails  to  conform  to  it. 

The  most  decisive  argument  against  identifying 
sin  with  imperfection  is  the  verdict  of  the  human 
consciousness  itself.  The  consciousness  of  sin 
as  a  positive  malignant  fact  is  most  intense  in  the 
highest  natures.  It  is  the  saint,  not  the  sinner, 
who  says,  "  O  wretched  man  that  I  am,  who 
shall  deliver  me  from  the  body  of  this  death  ?  " 
It  was  the  Son  of  God  Himself  who,  as  Christians 
believe,  gave  His  life  a  ransom  for  sin,  because 
no  smaller  price  could  destroy  its  power. 

W.  R.  Inge. 


What  time  my  heart  unfolded  its  fresh  leaves 
In  spring  time  gay,  and  scattered  flowers  around, 
A  whisper  warned  of  earth's  unhealthy  ground. 

And  all  that  there  faith's  light  and  pureness  grieves — 
Sun's  ray  and  canker  worm, 
And  sudden  whelming  storm. 

But  ah  !    my  self  will  smiled,  nor  recked  the  gracious 
sound. 

So  now  defilement  dims  life's  memory  springs ; 
I  cannot  hear  an  early  cherished  strain, 
But  first  a  joy,  and  then  it  brings  a  pain — 

Fear,  and  self  hate,  and  vain  remorseful  stings  : 
Tears  lull  my  grief  to  rest, 


PENITENCE  59 

Not  without  hope  this  breast 
May  one  day  lose  its  load,  and  youth  yet  bloom  again. 

J.  H.  Newman. 
*h 

The  Saviour  of  the  world  must  heal  not  only 
the  breach  between  God  and  man,  but  the  sick- 
ness of  human  nature  itself.  And  this  He  does 
by  implanting  in  man,  through  union  with  His 
own  perfect  nature,  a  supernatural  principle  of 
regeneration  ;  a  germ  of  new  life  which  may 
destroy  the  cause  of  corruption,  and  arrest  its 
progress,  and  make  human  nature  again  capable 
of  union  with  God. 

The  corrupt  nature  struggles  still,  seeks  for 
its  separate  life  away  from  God,  a  life  that  is 
no  life.  But  the  moment  the  new  life  is  given, 
the  helplessness,  the  hopelessness  of  the  struggle 
is  past.  The  cry  of  human  nature,  "  I  cannot 
do  the  things  that  I  would,"  becomes  the  thank- 
ful utterance  of  the  regenerate  soul,  "  I  can 
do  all  things  through  Christ  which  strengtheneth 
me." 

Aubrey  L.  Moore. 

The  history  of  the  world  morally  viewed  is  a 
tragedy.  All  the  great  tragedy  of  the  world 
turns  upon  its  guilt.  Aeschylus,  Shakespeare, 
Goethe,    Ibsen,    all   tell   it   you.     The  solution 


6o  IN  TIME  OF  SICKNESS 

of  the  world,  therefore,  is  what  destroys  its 
guilt.  And  nothing  can  destroy  guilt  but  the 
very  holiness  that  makes  guilt  guilt.  And  that 
destruction  is  the  work  of  Christ  upon  His  Cross, 
the  Word  of  Life  Eternal  in  your  hands  and  in 
your  souls. 

The  supreme  problem  of  the  moral  world  is 
sin.  Its  one  need  is  to  be  forgiven.  And  nothing 
but  holiness  can  forgive.  Love  cannot.  We  are 
both  forgiven  and  redeemed  in  Jesus  Christ  and 
in  Him  as  crucified  unto  the  world  for  the 
holiness  of  God  and  the  sin  of  men. 

P.  T.  Forsyth. 


The  first  advice  which  I  should  give  to  a  person 
under  conviction  of  not  yet  being  right  with 
God — of  not  yet  possessing  what  he  sees  that 
others  enjoy  of  spiritual  peace  and  comfort, — 
of  being  still  under  guilt  and  condemnation  .  .  . 
would  be  to  go  somewhere  all  alone,  and  have 
it  out  by  himself.  .  .  .  No  man  can  reveal  Christ 
to  another ;  he  can  only  so  speak  of  Christ  as 
to  teach  another  how  to  go  and  find  Christ  for 
himself.  ...  I  do  not  know  anything  more 
suggestive  or  useful  than  the  account  given  us 
in  the  Book  of  Genesis  of  Jacob's  wrestling.  .  .  . 
This,  then,  is  the  first  thing,  to  set  apart  a  time. 


PENITENCE  6i 

a  sufficiently  long  time,  for  making  a  great  spiritual 
effort. 

*'  Come,  O  Thou  Traveller  unknown, 
Whom  still  I  hold  but  cannot  see  ; 
My  company  before  is  gone, 

And  I  am  left  alone  with  Thee. 
With  Thee  all  night  I  mean  to  stay, 
And  wrestle  till  the  break  of  day." 

When  souls  are  really  in  earnest,  we  need  not 
fear  but  that  the  Holy  Spirit,  which  helpeth 
our  infirmities,  and  maketh  intercession  for  us 
with  groanings  which  cannot  be  uttered,  will 
supply  what  is  lacking  in  our  prayer. 

A.  J.  Mason. 

It  was  said  by  one  in  great  sorrow  :  "  I  feel 
as  if  God  was  taking  great  trouble  with  me." 

E.  R. 

Self-knowledge  is  the  foundation-stone  of 
moral  improvement.  Living  on  terms  of  intim- 
acy with  one's  conscience  may  not  open  alluring 
vistas,  but  it  is  surely  the  part  of  prudence  in 
view  of  the  uncompromising  justice  of  ultimate 
moral  awards.     Are  we  strictly  honest  with  our- 


62  IN  TIME  OF  SICKNESS 

selves  ?     There   is   no   question   freighted   with 
more  tremendous  issues. 

To  play  at  masquerade  before  God  in  the 
hidden  passages  of  the  heart,  is  fraught  with 
consequences  more  dire  than  result  from  any 
overt  act  of  deceit  practised  among  men.  Moral 
insincerity  vitiates  faith  at  its  spring.  It  renders 
the  soul  absolutely  incapable  of  communion  with 
God  Who  is  the  Truth. 

WiLFORD   L.    ROBBINS. 


We  can  suffer  no  greater  spiritual  detriment 
than  a  forfeiture  of  the  power  of  self-discernment. 

We,  self-forming,  self-determining  creatures, 
can  obstruct  the  free  flow  of  the  sap  that  rises 
in  our  spiritual  veins  at  seasons  of  springtime 
and  renewal, — not  only  by  sin,  which  shuts  the 
door  in  God's  face  ;  but  by  false  solicitude  ;  by 
mistaking  conditions  for  causes ;  by  overtrust 
in  methods,  devices  and  industries.  We  are  as 
an  impatient,  self-confident  learner,  who  runs 
ahead  of  his  teacher  and  spoils  the  task  ;  forget- 
ting that  unless  God  build  up  the  house  of  our 
sanctity,  our  labour  is  in  vain  ;  unless  He  watch 
over  the  citadel  of  our  soul,  our  watchfulness 
is  fruitless  self-wearying. 

How,  then,  do  they  grow,  these  lilies   of  the 


PENITENCE  63 

field — these  miracles  of,  what  we  might  irrever- 
ently call,  God's  infinite  good  taste  ? 

Not  by  reflex  conscious  effort ;  not  by  measur- 
ing their  rate  of  growth  hour  by  hour  and  day 
by  day ;  not  by  tearing  themselves  up  by  the 
very  roots  and  transplanting  themselves,  now 
here,  now  there,  in  obedience  to  every  fidgety 
suggestion  of  self -improvement.  How  then  ?  We 
know  not  how  ;   for  it  is  God's  concern,  and  not 

ours. 

George  Tyrrell. 

A  habit  of  sin  demands  the  closest  scrutiny 
and  the  severest  self-examination. 

It  is  hard  to  have  faith  in  the  presence  of  a 
besetting  sin.  But  herein  lies  faith's  supreme 
test  and  most  glorious  opportunity.  Honestly 
to  repent,  to  be  filled  with  contrition,  yet  to 
hope  ;  to  gird  up  one's  loins  and  renew  the  con- 
flict ;  to  yield  not  for  one  instant  to  despair  but 
once  again  to  aim  at  the  highest,  this  is  moral 
sincerity,  and  nothing  short  of  it  is  worthy  the 
name. 

WiLFORD   L,    ROBBINS. 

In  the  Psalms  we  see  how  the  soul  has  learned 
to  look  into  itself,  how  it  has  learned  the  need 
of  the  inward  watch,  the  inward  struggle,  the 


64  IN  TIME  OF  SICKNESS 

inward  self-disclosure — "  Examine  me,  O  Lord, 
and  prove  me  ;  try  out  my  reins  and  my  heart." 
"  Commune  with  your  own  heart,  and  in  your 
chamber,  and  be  still," — how  it  has  seen  the 
awful  vision  of  its  own  sin,  how  it  has  discovered 
how  deeply  it  needs  mercy  and  forgiveness  and 
healing,  and  the  spirit  from  God  to  help  it  in 
the  right  path,  which,  with  all  its  sins,  it  longs 
to  tread.  "Who  can  tell  how  oft  he  offendeth  ; 
O  cleanse  Thou  me  from  secret  faults." 

R.  W.  Church. 

Contrition* 

When  then — if  such  thy  lot — thou  seest  thy  Judge, 

The  sight  of  Him  will  kindle  in  thy  heart, 

All  tender,  gracious,  reverential  thoughts. 

Thou  wilt  be  sick  with  love,  and  yearn  for  Him, 

And  feel  as  though  thou  could'st  but  pity  Him, 

That  One  so  sweet  should  e'er  have  placed  Himself 

At  disadvantage  such,  as  to  be  used 

So  vilely  by  a  being  so  vile  as  thee. 

There  is  a  pleading  in  His  pensive  eyes 

Will  pierce  thee  to  the  quick,  and  trouble  thee. 

And  thou  wilt  hate  and  loathe  thyself ;  for  though 

Now  sinless,  thou  wilt  feel  that  thou  hast  sinned, 

As  never  thou  didst  feel ;  and  wilt  desire 

To  slink  away,  and  hide  thee  from  His  sight. 

And  yet  wilt  have  a  longing  aye  to  dwell 

Within  the  beauty  of  His  countenance. 


PENITENCE  65 

And  these  two  pains,  so  counter  and  so  keen, — 
The  longing  for  Him  when  thou  seest  Him  not, 
The  shame  of  self  at  thought  of  seeing  Him, — 
Will  be  thy  veriest,  sharpest  purgatory. 

J.  H.  Newman. 

The  zoish,  the  continued  wish,  to  be  contrite, 
is  contrition  :  the  wish  to  hate  one's  evil  self 
is  the  beginning  of  such  hatred.  A  person  who 
feels  it  in  the  slightest  degree,  and  tries  to  have 
more  of  it,  and  is  grieved  not  to  have  more^ — 
such  an  one,  so  far,  is  surely  coming  to  our  Lord, 
and  "  him  that  is  coming  unto  Him,  He  will  in 
no  wise  cast  out."  Undoubtedly,  the  first  effort 
at  all  this  will  be  very  faint  and  imperfect,  but 
so  are  all  our  beginnings,  and  our  perceiving 
them  to  be  such  is  a  good  sign,  not  a  bad  one. 

The  only  sure  and  sufficient  test  of  reality 
in  one's  feelings,  I  suppose  to  be  our  conduct, 
i.e.,  our  deliberate  thoughts,  our  words  and  our 
actions,  and  especially  in  little  everyday  unno- 
ticed and  unnoticeable  matters  :  if  we  are  gra- 
dually trying  more  and  more  to  bring  them  into 
captivity  to  the  love  of  God  and  our  neighbour, 
we  may  have  the  comfortable  hope  that  God 
accepts  our  Repentance,  however  imperfect. 

John  Keble, 

A.e,  F 


66  7A^   TIME  OF  SICKNESS 

Contrition,  in  a  more  or  less  perfect  form,  is 
to  be  found  at  the  very  beginning  of  the  spiritual 
life  of  all  who  have  ever  sinned  deeply.  It  is  its 
first  movement,  that  which  causes  it  to  say,  "  I 
will  arise."  It  is  the  first  thought  that  breaks 
in  upon  the  soul  as  it  awakens  to  the  sense  of  its 
sin.  .  .  .  Where  the  sense  of  sin  is  not,  the 
spiritual  life  cannot  exist ;  as  the  life  of  holiness 
grows,  the  spirit  of  contrition  deepens.  It  seems 
strange,  but  it  is  undoubtedly  true,  that  contrition 
deepens  in  proportion  as  the  guilt  of  sin  is 
removed. 

There  is  nothing  that  contrition  will  not  dare. 
She  will  strive  after  the  virtues  that  seem  to 
belong  only  to  those  who  have  been  always  kept 
pure.  Despair  cannot  exist  where  she  is,  nor 
timidity.  .  .  .  She  is  the  life  and  centre  of  all 
the  soul's  progress.  ...  So  clear  is  her  own 
vision  of  God,  so  certain  is  she  of  her  own  love, 
that  she  can  encourage  and  sustain  the  soul  in 
times  of  utmost  darkness  and  deadness. 

B.  W.  Maturin. 


Contrition  is  indeed  the  moulding  and  control- 
ling force  that  forms,  restores  and  preserves  the 
penitent.  Its  transforming  power  is  so  great 
that  it  can  fit  the  greatest  sinner  for  the  company 


PENITENCE  67 

of  the  saints.  .  .  .  Penitence  can  give  to  the 
soul  what  it  would  seem  as  if  it  could  only  gain 
by  innocence.  It  verily  can  raise  up  the  poor 
out  of  the  dust,  and  lift  up  the  beggar  from  the 
dunghill  to  set  him  among  princes,  and  to  make 
him  inherit  the  throne  of  glory. 

Contrition  bears  deeply  marked  upon  itself 
both  the  strength  and  the  tenderness  of  love. 
It  has  a  "  heart  of  fire  towards  God,  a  heart  of 
flesh  towards  man,  a  heart  of  steel  towards  self." 

Ibid. 


Lord,  I  have  fasted,  I  have  prayed, 
And  sackcloth  has  my  girdle  been, 

To  purge  my  soul  I  have  essayed 
With  hunger  blank  and  vigil  keen. 

O  God  of  mercy  !  why  am  I 

Still  haunted  by  the  self  I  fly  ?  " 

Sackcloth  is  a  girdle  good, 

O  bind  it  round  thee  still : 
Fasting,  it  is  Angels'  food. 

And  Jesus  loved  the  night  air  chill ; 
Yet  think  not  prayer  and  fast  were  given 
To  make  one  step  'twixt  earth  and  Heaven. 

R.  H.  Froude. 


68  IN  TIME  OF  SICKNESS 

The  only  sorrow  worthy  of  a  Christian  is  when 
one  loves  the  God  Who  has  been  offended,  and, 
in  the  midst  of  shame  and  grief  felt  on  other 
accounts,  cries  out  with  David,  "  Against  Thee 
only  have  I  sinned,  and  done  this  evil  in  Thy 
sight."  If  he  finds  his  heart  too  hard  to  weep 
thus  before  God,  then,  as  S.  Ambrose  says  most 
beautifully,  Jesus  Himself  will  help  him.  "My 
eyes  have  no  tears  to  wash  away  mine  offences  : 
Lord  Jesus,  do  Thou  weep  for  me,  as  Thou  didst 
for  Lazarus,  and  I  shall  be  saved,  and  come  forth 
to  the  light." 

It  is  the  motive  which  distinguishes  the  perfect 
from  the  imperfect  sorrow.  .  .  .  Not  many 
souls  attain  at  once  to  sorrow  for  the  love  of  God. 
.  .  .  Sorrow  for  sin  produces  a  long  and  endur- 
ing change  of  character  ...  it  goes  forward 
with  great  firmness  and  force  to  the  forming  of 
holy  resolutions.  The  eyes  may  be  quite  dry, 
tokens  of  agitation  entirely  absent ;  but  the 
indispensable  thing— a  purpose  to  amend  our 
ways — will  be  there.  That  is  the  disposition 
which  God  accepts  or  blesses. 

Edward  Churton. 


And  so,  albeit  His  woe  is  our  release, 

Thought  of  that  woe  aye  dims  our  earthly  peace ; 


PENITENCE  69 

The  Life  is  hidden  in  a  Fount  of  Blood  ! — 

And  this  is  tidings  good 
For  souls,  who,  pierced  that  they  have  caused  that  woe, 

Are  fain  to  share  it  too  : — 
But  for  the  many  clinging  to  their  lot 
Of  worldly  ease  and  sloth,  'tis  written,  "  Touch  me  not." 

J.  H.  Newman. 


God  hears  the  heart  rather  than  the  voice  :  we 
do  more  by  groans  than  words. 

S.  Augustine. 

Repentance  is  a  principle  of  hope  and  a  pledge 
of  restoration  through  return  to  God.  Lacerated 
pride  is  a  principle  of  despair  :  the  self  on  which 
it  relied  has  failed,  and  there  is  no  other  strength 
within  its  view.  Repentance,  then,  is  essentially 
different  from  sorrow  at  having  to  suffer,  and 
from  self  contempt  at  having  failed.  Repentance 
is  sorrow  for  having  offended  the  love  of  God  : 
and  we  must  add,  that,  where  repentance  exists, 
full  forgiveness  follows.  .  .  .  Repentance  must 
go  before  forgiveness  :  and  the  sorrow  in  which 
repentance  consists  must  be  real  suffering,  deeply 
felt  and  patiently  endured.  The  acuteness  of 
the  suffering  is  the  measure  of  our  repentance  ; 
and  repentance  is  the  guarantee  of  forgiveness. 

Arthur  Chandler. 


70  IN  TIME  OF  SICKNESS 

Hush  thee,  angry  heart  ! 
An  Angel's  grief  ill  fits  a  penitent  ; 
Welcome  the  thorn — it  is  divinely  sent, 

And  with  its  wholesome  smart 
Shall  pierce  thee  in  thy  virtue's  palmy  home, 
And  warn  thee  what  thou  art,  and  whence  thy  wealth 
has  come. 

J.  H.  Newman. 


But  I  am  scanned  by  eyes  unseen, 
And  these  no  saint  surround  ; 

They  mete  what  is  by  what  has  been, 
And  joy  the  lost  is  found. 

Erst  my  good  Angel  shrank  to  see 
My  thoughts  and  ways  of  ill ; 

And  now  he  scarce  dare  gaze  on  me, 
Scar  seamed  and  crippled  still. 

Ibid. 


Repentance  is  not  merely  a  change  of  conduct, 
but  a  change  of  conduct  based  upon  a  change  of 
feeling  and  mind.  It  is  a  repudiation  of  what 
is  now  felt  to  be  sinful.  It  is  not  enough  to  leave 
off  from  doing  wrong  and  begin  to  do  right; 
there  must  be  a  sense  of  guilt,  joined  with  sorrow 
for  having  done  wrong  in  the  past,  and  for  being 
still  tainted  by  inward  evil.  And  in  order  that 
the  repentance   may   be  good,   the   motive   for 


PENITENCE  71 

sorrow  must  be  found  not  solely  in  the  sinner's 
hopes  or  fears  for  himself,  nor  even  in  the  thought 
of  the  injury  he  has  inflicted  upon  his  fellow- 
men  ;  but  in  the  knowledge  that  he  has  grieved 
and  offended  God.  The  determination  to  make 
what  amends  may  be  possible,  and  the  readiness 
to  acknowledge  to  God  and  (where  advisable) 
to  man,  the  whole  extent  of  the  wrong  done, 
must  be  the  outcome  of  a  loving  and  unselfish 
grief,  which  bears  the  name  of  contrition.  These, 
contrition,  confession,  amendment,  are  the  three 
parts  of  repentance. 

A.  J.  Mason. 


Contemplation  of  Christ's  sufferings,  combined 
with  prayer,  will  do  more  than  any  other  exercise 
to  cause  genuine  sorrow  for  having  offended 
the  love  of  God.  ...  In  following  the  scenes 
of  the  Passion,  contemplate  our  Lord  as  the 
sin-bearer,  and  think  of  each  insult  or  indignity 
suffered  by  Him  as  representing  to  us  the  penalties 
due  to  our  own  offences.  .  .  .  Thus  we  come  to 
feel  the  stirrings  of  real  sorrow  for  having  rejected 
God's  love.  Moved  by  that  sorrow,  we  take  our 
place  beside  Him  in  His  Passion,  enduring  our 
small  sufferings  cheerfully,  uniting  our  half- 
hearted penitence  with  His  Divine,  all-compre- 


72  IN  TIME  OF  SICKNESS 

hensive  sorrow,  whereby  it  can  be  deepened,  and 
strengthened,  and  purified. 

Arthur  Chandler. 

Mortal !  if  e'er  thy  spirits  faint, 

By  grief  or  pain  opprest, 
Seek  not  vain  hope,  or  sour  complaint. 

To  cheer  or  ease  thy  breast. 

But  view  thy  bitterest  pangs  as  sent 

A  shadow  of  that  doom. 
Which  is  thy  soul's  just  punishment 

In  its  own  guilt's  true  home. 

Be  thine  own  judge  :  hate  thy  proud  heart ; 

And  while  the  sad  drops  flow, 
E'en  let  thy  will  attend  the  smart, 

And  sanctify  thy  woe. 

J.  H.  Newman. 

The  little  sins  play  a  more  terrible  part  than  we 
know  in  the  soul's  tragedy.  A  great  sin  often 
brings  its  ov/n  visible  punishment,  its  own  recoil. 
We  see  its  loathsomeness.  But  the  little  sins  are 
so  little,  we  hardly  notice  them.  They  are 
like  the  drizzling  rain  which  wets  us  through 
before  we  think  of  taking  shelter.  The  trifling 
acts  of  pride,  of  sloth,  the  unchecked  love  of  self, 
the  evil  thoughts,  the  word  of  shame,  the  little 


PENITENCE  73 

neglect  of  prayer, — ah  !  we  never  thought  that 
these  could  kill  down  the  soul,  and  separate  from 
God.  And  suddenly  we  awake  to  find  that  God 
has,  as  it  were,  dropped  out  of  our  lives.  We  were 
living  the  world's  life,  and  thinking  the  world's 
thoughts,  and  adopting  the  world's  standards. 
We  never  committed  any  great  sin  ;  we  knew, 
indeed,  that  God  was  not  in  all  our  thoughts, 
and  now  He  seems  to  have  left  us  altogether,  and 
we  lift  up  that  bitter  cry  of  the  soul  in  separation, 
"  O  God,  cast  us  not  away  from  Thy  presence." 
Sin  is  the  unutterable  mystery  of  our  lives. 
We  cannot  solve  it ;  but  this  we  know — it  is 
man's  work,  not  God's.  "  God,"  it  has  been  said, 
"  will  part  with  no  one  who  does  not  say  to  Him, 
face  to  face,  '  I  will  not  have  Thee.'  "  Not  one 
soul  shall  be  separated  from  Heaven  which  has 
not  rejected  the  appeal  of  love  :  "  Ye  will  not 
come  unto  Me,  that  ye  might  have  life." 

Aubrey  L.  Moore. 


No  one  is  so  blind  to  his  own  sins  as  the  man 
who  has  most  sin  upon  him. 

No  men  see  the  nature  of  sin  so  clearly  as  those 
who  are  freest  from  sin. 

There  are  three  great  depths  which  no  human 
line  can  sound — the  depth  of  our  sinfulness,  the 


74  J^N  TIME  OF  SICKNESS 

depth  of  our  unworthiness  and  the  depth  of  our 
nothingness.  If  you  are  beginning  to  learn 
those  three  things,  happy  are  you. 

Meditate  every  day  of  your  lives  upon  this 
great  and  awful  truth — how  easy  it  is  to  fall 
from  God  ;  and  say  to  yourselves,  "  God  is  my 
end  ;    for  Him  I  was  created." 

"  If  I  do  not  correspond  with  the  grace  which 
God  has  given  me,  I  shall  miss  my  eternal  end." 

No  sins  can  be  small  which  can  only  be  cleansed 
away  in  the  Precious  Blood  of  the  Incarnate 
Son  of  God. 

Pray  to  God  the  Holy  Ghost  to  illuminate 
your  heart  with  such  a  knowledge  of  God  and  of 
yourselves,  that,  in  the  light  of  His  perfection, 
you  may  see  the  least  deviation  of  your  thoughts, 
words  and  deeds  from  His  holy  will. 

Cardinal  Manning. 

dontCBBion. 

He  that  covereth  his  transgressions  shall  not  prosper, 
But  whoso  confesseth  and  forsaketh  them  shall   obtain 
mercy.  Pro  v.  xxviii.  13. 

If  we  say  that  we  have  no  sin,  we  deceive 
ourselves,  and  the  truth  is  not  in  us. 


PENITENCE  75 

If  we  confess  our  sin,  He  is  faithful  and  just 
to  forgive  us  our  sin,  and  to  cleanse  us  from  all 
unrighteousness. 

"  Confess  our  sins,"  not  only  acknowledge 
them,  but  acknowledge  them  openly  in  the  face 
of  men. 

Nothing  is  said  or  implied  as  to  the  mode  in 
which  such  confession  is  to  be  made.  That  is 
to  be  determined  by  experience.  Yet  its  essential 
character  is  made  clear.  It  extends  to  specific, 
definite  acts  and  not  only  to  sin  in  general  terms. 
That  which  corresponds  to  saying  "  we  have  no 
sin,"  is  not  saying  "  we  have  sin,"  but  "  confessing 
our  sins."  The  denial  is  made  in  an  abstract 
form  :    the  confession  is  concrete  and  personal. 

Bishop  Westcott. 


Humble  thyself,  and  take  unto  thee  such  of 
thy  brethren  as  are  of  one  mind,  and  do  bear 
kind  affection  toward  thee,  that  they  may  to- 
gether mourn  and  labour  for  thy  deliverance.  .  .  . 
Make  the  priest,  as  a  father,  partaker  of  thy  afflic- 
tion and  grief  ;  be  bold  to  impart  unto  him  the 
things  that  are  most  secret  :  he  will  have  care 
both  of  thy  safety  and  of  thy  credit. 

S.  Gregory  of  Nyssa. 


76  IN  TIME  OF  SICKNESS 

The  Church  is  as  Christ  Himself  :  when  thou 
dost  therefore  put  forth  thy  hands  to  the  knees 
of  thy  brethren,  thou  touchest  Christ  :  it  is  Christ 
unto  Whom  thou  art  a  suppliant  :  so  when  they 
pour  out  their  tears  over  them,  it  is  even  Christ 
that  taketh  compassion  :  neither  can  that  be 
easily  denied,  for  which  the  Son  is  Himself 
contented  to  become  a  suitor. 

Tertullian. 


Confession  to  a  priest,  the  minister  of  pardon 
and  reconciliation,  the  curate  of  souls,  and  the 
guide  of  consciences,  is  of  so  great  use  and  benefit 
to  all  that  are  heavily  laden  with  their  sins,  that 
they  who  carelessly  neglect  it  are  neither  lovers 
of  the  peace  of  consciences,  nor  careful  for  the 
advantage  of  their  souls.  .  .  .  There  are  many 
cases  of  conscience,  which  the  penitent  cannot 
determine,  many  necessities  which  he  does  not 
perceive,  many  duties  which  he  omits,  many 
abatements  of  duty  which  he  ignorantly  or  pre- 
sumptuously does  make,  much  partiality  in  the 
determination  of  his  own  interests  ;  and  to  build 
up  a  soul  requires  so  much  wisdom,  so  much 
severity,  so  many  arts,  such  caution  and  observ- 
ance, such  variety  of  notices,  great  learning,  great 
prudence,  great  piety ;    that  as  all  ministers  are 


PENITENCE  77 

not  worthy  of  that  charge  ...  so,  it  is  certain, 
there  are  not  many  of  the  people  that  can  worthily 
and  sufficiently  do  it  themselves  ;  and,  therefore, 
although  it  cannot  be  said  that  God  hath  by  an 
express  law  required  it  .  .  .  yet  to  some  persons 
it  hath  put  on  so  many  degrees  of  charity  and 
prudence,  and  is  so  apt  to  minister  to  their  super- 
induced needs ;  that  although  to  do  it  is  not  a 
necessary  obedience,  yet  it  is  a  necessary  charity ; 
it  is  not  necessary  in  respect  of  a  positive  express 
commandment,  yet  it  is  in  order  to  certain  ends, 
which  cannot  be  so  well  provided  for  by  any  other 

instrument. 

Jeremy  Taylor. 

The  custom,  which — ^with  all  its  humiliation 
— Catholics  come  to  feel  so  helpful,  that,  viz., 
of  periodically  practising  confession,  has  unques- 
tionably been  an  aid  to  the  Higher  Life  during 
the  centuries  in  which  it  has  been  practised.  The 
turning  of  the  eye  inwards,  scrutinizing  the 
springs  and  the  motives  of  conduct,  and  after 
the  discovery  that  one  has  erred  this  way  or  that, 
has  "  left  undone  those  things  which  he  ought 
to  have  done,  and  done  those  things  which  he 
ought  not  to  have  done,"  confessing  it  all,  not 
to  any  human  medium,  but  to  the  Infinite, 
through  the   guarded   and  gracious   channel  of 


78  7A^  TIME  OF  SICKNESS 

the  Finite  ;  and  after  Confession — keeping  no- 
thing back,  and  being  genuinely  penitent  for  all 
— receiving  absolution,  in  the  sense  of  finding 
the  burden  lifted  from  the  back,  and  a  new  step 
forward  made  possible,  with  a  sense  of  freedom 
gained,  and  life  renewed,  not  by  forgetfulness 
of  the  past,  but  by  rising  "  on  the  stepping  stones 
of  the  dead  self  to  higher  things  " — all  that  has 
been  an  immeasurable  blessing  to  the  world. 

The  gain  of  Confession  to  all  penitents  is  four- 
fold : — (i)  That  of  self-knowledge.  (2)  The 
demand  for  thorough  sincerity,  or  absolute  truth- 
fulness, in  unfolding  to  the  eye  of  the  Infinite 
what  has  transpired,  or  been  acted,  in  the  depths 
of  the  personal  life.  (3)  Reparation  for  wrongs 
done  to  others  is  made  easier  and  more  natural. 
None  who  make  a  practice  of  genuine  Confes- 
sion can  continue  to  harbour  grudges,  or  to 
cherish  hatreds,  against  their  fellow-men.  (4) 
A  fresh  start  is  given  to  the  moral  life,  when — 
after  everything  is  told,  and  burdens  are  removed 
— a  new  beginning  is  made,  an  impulse  forward 
received,  aspiration  quickened,  upward  movement 
made  easier,  and  the  ideals  of  life  developed  in 
every  direction  under  happier  auspices  than 
before.  William  Knight. 


PENITENCE  79 

When  we  have  wrongly  opposed  another,  con- 
fession is  part  of  the  reparation  due  to  him  ; 
occult  compensation,  from  the  very  fact  that  it 
saves  our  pride,  can  never  fully  satisfy  the  debt. 
Hence  we  have  not  paid  our  debt  to  God  (as  we 
are  constrained  to  conceive  Him),  till  we  have 
confessed  our  sin  by  a  special  act  of  acknowledg- 
ment addressed  to  Him  ;  nor  will  it  do  to  rest 
passively  in  the  thought  that  He  knows  all  and 
needs  not  that  we  should  tell  Him.  "  If  we 
confess  our  sins  He  is  faithful  and  just  to  forgive 
us."  But  as  we  ourselves  are,  so  also  is  God 
irritated  and  angered  by  those  who  obstinately 
justify  themselves — who  never  own  themselves 
wrong.  To  those  who  confess  frankly,  honestly, 
promptly.  He  is  all  propitiable  and  forgiving. 
"  I  have  sinned,"  says  David  ;  "  the  Lord  hath 
taken  away  thy  sin,"  is  the  instant  response. 
In  the  same  moment  that  we  resolve  upon  con- 
fession, He  runs  forth  to  meet  us,  and  to  silence 
our  lips  with  the  kiss  of  peace. 

George  Tyrrell. 


God  has  so  incorporated  Himself  with  the 
whole  Church  of  redeemed  humanity  in  becom- 
ing the  Head  and  Heart  of  that  mystical  organism, 
that  confession  is  due  not  to  Him  alone  but  to 


8o  7A^   TIME  OF  SICKNESS 

that  entire  living  body  in  union  with  which  our 
salvation  consists.  By  sin  we  always  weaken, 
if  we  do  not  wholly  sever,  our  vital  connexion 
with  that  "  Tree  of  Life  "  through  which  alone 
we  receive  the  quickening  sap  of  God's  grace. 

The  deeper  this  truth  enters  our  soul  the  less 
shall  we  be  in  danger  of  Pharisaism  (or  "  separa- 
tism "  as  the  word  means),  of  the  spirit  of  those 
who  gather  in  their  garments  from  contact  with 
sinners,  and  thank  God  they  are  not  as  others, 
forgetting  their  identity  with,  and  their  respon- 
sibility for,  those  others. 

Ibid. 


We  must  confess  our  sins  in  order  to  obtain 
pardon  ;  but  we  must  see  our  sins  in  order  to 
confess.  How  few  of  those  who  think  that  they 
have  confessed  and  been  pardoned  have  ever  seen 
their  sins  ! 

Coventry  Patmore. 

In  the  external  and  sacramental  penance  of 
the  Church,  Confession  follows  Contrition  and 
precedes  Absolution.  In  the  spiritual  and  time- 
less world  the  three  are  coincident.  Repentance 
is  a  self-accusation  in  the  presence  of  the  Father, 


PENITENCE  8i 

Who  seeth  in  secret  :  it  is  a  prayer  for  forgive- 
ness which  is  answered  before  it  is  made. 

The  self-accusing  habit  of  mind  is  an  indispen- 
sable condition  of  spiritual  growth  ;  it  is  a  part 
of  that  general  teachableness  and  receptivity 
without  which  the  Spirit  is  intractable  in  the 
hands  of  God.  The  infallible  and  the  unteach- 
able  are  doomed  to  stagnation    and  petrifaction. 

As  necessarily  as  prayer  tends  to  embody  itself 
in  utterance,  and  requires  utterance  for  its  due 
development,  so  necessarily  does  contrition  require 
confession  and  the  deeds  of  penance — not  merely 
such  deeds  as  are  due  already  by  a  thousand 
titles,  but  deeds  done  more  abundantly,  humbly 
and  diligently,  to  redeem  the  time  that  is  lost 
by  past  sin  and  negligence.  The  spirit-life 
for   us   sinners   is   essentially  a   penitential  life, 

George  Tyrrell, 


Real  contrition  must  express  itself,  first  in 
word  and  then  in  deed  ;  and  so  it  leads  us  onward 
to  confession  and  satisfaction.  It  must  do  so  if 
it  is  real,  for  all  real  thought  or  feeling  burns 
impatiently  within  us  till  it  has  clothed  itself 
in  language.  Thought  and  feeling,  which  has 
not  yet  come  forth  into  contact  with  the  outer 
world,  is  still,  in  a  measure,  abstract,  indefinite, 

A,Q,  G 


82  IN  TIME  OF  SICKNESS 

unreal  :  and,  therefore,  the  contrition  which 
comes  of  knowing  that  we  have  wounded  love, 
must,  in  proportion  to  its  intensity,  thirst  for 
utterance  in  words — out  of  the  fulness  of  the 
heart  the  mouth  speaking. 

J.  R.  Illingworth. 


The  more  we  realize  God  as  ever  present, 
almighty  and  omniscient,  holy,  full  of  compassion, 
and  deserving  both  our  fear  and  love,  the  more 
we  learn  to  hate  and  mourn  over  the  sins  that 
we  have  done  to  His  dishonour.  But  of  such 
sorrow  there  must  be  outward  evidence.  Con- 
fession, then,  becomes  an  imperative  necessity. 
The  inward  grief  must  have  an  outlet.  We  con- 
fess, because  we  could  not  do  otherwise.  And  we 
feel  that,  although  the  past  cannot  be  undone, 
there  is  some  slight  reparation  to  the  wounded 
love  of  a  heavenly  Father  when  we  enumerate 
the  details  of  our  offence,  by  thought,  word  and 
deed.  .  .  .  Rude  as  were  the  people  whom 
Joshua  led,  they  would  understand  that  it  was 
right  and  for  "  the  glory  of  God  "  that  Achan 
should  make  solemn  confession  of  his  trespass. 

Edward  Churton. 


PENITENCE  83 

To  promote  humility,  self-accusation,  sorrow, 
and  therefore  the  grace  of  perseverance,  and  to 
renew  our  peace  with  God,  it  is  good  to  accuse 
ourselves  of  everything  we  know  we  have  com- 
mitted, even  in  the  least — in  the  sins  of  omission. 

The  one  only  sin  which  is  beyond  the  reach 
of  absolution,  the  one  only  sin  which  the  Precious 
Blood  cannot  absolve,  is  the  sin  that  is  not 
repented  of  ;  that  is  the  sole  and  only  sin  that 
shall  not  be  washed  as  w^hite  as  snow. 

Be  beforehand  with  the  Day  of  Judgment. 
That  which  you  confess  now  will  be  blotted  out 
and  forgiven  in  that  day.  That  which  you  hide 
now  will  be  in  the  book  of  God's  remembrance, 
laid  up  for  a  record  in  the  day  of  the  great  assize. 

Cardinal  Manning. 

0  Father,  list  a  sinner's  call  ! 

Fain  would  I  hide  from  man  my  fall, 
But  I  must  speak  or  faint. 

1  cannot  wear  guilt's  silent  thrall — 

Cleanse  me,  kind  Saint  ! 

#  #  #  *  # 

**  Peace  cannot  be,  hope  must  be  thine ; 
I  can  but  lift  the  Mercy  sign. 

This  would'st  thou  ?     It  shall  be  ! 
Kneel  down,  and  take  the  word  divine, 
Absolvo  te." 

J.  H.  Newman. 


84  IN  TIME  OF  SICKNESS 

antenbment 

"  These  which  are  arrayed  in  the  white  robes,  who  are 
they,  and  whence  came  they  ? 

"  These  are  they  which  came  out  of  the  great  tribulation, 
and  they  washed  their  robes,  and  made  them  white  in  the 
blood  of  the  Lamb."  Rev.  vii.  13,14. 

Behold,  I  have  caused  thine  iniquity  to  pass  from  thee. 

Zech.  iii.  4. 

And  such  were  some  of  you,  but  ye  were  washed,  but  ye 
were  sanctified,  but  ye  were  justified  in  the  name  of  the 
Lord  Jesus  Christ,  and  in  the  Spirit  of  our  God. 

I  Cor.  vi.   II. 

/  made  haste,  and  delayed  not,  to  observe  Thy  command- 
ments. Ps.  cxix.  60. 

/  have  sworn,  and  have  confirmed  it,  that  1  will  observe 
Thy  righteous  judgments.  Ps.  cxix.  io6- 

Cease  to  do  evil ;  Learn  to  do  well. 

Isa.  i.  16, 17, 

//  ye  love  Me,  ye  will  keep  My  Commandments. 

S.  John  xiv.   15. 

Let  us  therefore  labour,  dearly  beloved,  that  as  our 
Lord  on  this  day  ascended  with  our  own  body  into 
heaven,  so  we,  as  far  as  we  can,  may  ascend  after  Him 
in  hope  and  follow  Him  in  heart.  Let  us  ascend  after 
Him  both  in  our  affections  and  in  our  advances 
towards  perfection  :  even  through  our  sins  and  passions. 
How  through  our  passions  ?  Surely  if  each  one  of  us 
studies  to  subdue  them  to  himself,  and  accustoms 
himself  to  stand  above  them,  he  makes  out  of  them  a 
step  whereby  he  is  able  to  ascend  to  higher  things. 
They  will  lift  us  up  if  they  are  underneath  us. — Sermon 
clxxvi.  in  Appendix  to  S.  Augustine's  Ser7nons. 


PENITENCE  85 

If  confession  is  honest  and  humbling,  it  is  also 
stimulating  and  encouraging.  A  false  conviction 
that  we  cannot  help  sinning,  that  we  can  be 
snared  or  forced  into  it  against  our  wish,  unnerves 
our  effort,  destroys  our  liberty,  and  creates  the 
necessity  by  dreaming  of  it.  It  is  here  especially 
that  humility  and  honesty,  as  opposed  to  insincere 
self -justification,  is  so  invigorating  and  healthful. 

We  cannot  attempt  what  we  fixedly  believe 
to  be  impossible.  Belief  in  our  possession  of 
power  will  not  create  power  that  is  not  there, 
but  if  it  be  there  it  will  liberate  it,  and  bring  it 
to  act  where  else  it  were  dormant,  and  as  good 
as  absent.  Hence  the  value  of  self-confidence, 
and  the  use  of  encouragement.  Every  doctor 
knows  what  suggestion  can  do,  whether  to 
paralyse  or  to  invigorate  ;  and  in  moral  matters 
the  same  law  prevails.  The  fixed  idea  that  we 
cannot  control  our  imagination,  our  feelings,  our 
movements ;  that  we  are  "  possessed  "  by  some 
alien  power,  or  that  we  are  the  victims  of  some 
morbid  condition,  is  often  the  sole  and  only 
reason  why  we  cannot  and  do  not. 

George  Tyrrell. 

The  mental  side  of  every  conscious  act  consists 
in  forming  a  conviction  that  it  is  going  to 
happen. 


86  7.V   TIME  OF  SICKNESS 

A  resolution  is  simply  a  voluntary  belief  that  we 
are  going  to  act  in  a  certain  way ;  and  if  we  can 
hold  to  the  belief,  the  action  (if  a  possible  one) 
will  come  off  in  the  present  or  foreseen  conditions. 

That  the  resolve  and  the  deed,  should,  by 
habit,  be  inseparably  associated  is  the  essential  con- 
dition of  moral  strength  and  self-government. 

Ibid. 


If  one  may  legitimately  believe  that  the  moral 
excellence,  after  which  he  strives  in  vain,  is 
nevertheless  an  integral  element  in  the  nature 
he  inherits,  and  therefore  a  latent  possibility  of 
his  life, — only  requiring  the  removal  of  existing 
hindrance,  and  the  -presence  of  some  magnet,  to 
draw  them  forth, — there  is  a  large  amount  of 
good  cheer  in  the  prospect.  The  possibility  of 
dormant  virtues  springing  into  activity,  or  of 
dull  ones  being  quickened  by  transference,  adds 
a  new  interest  to  the  moral  life,  and  its  aspirations 
after  unrealized  ideals. 

William  Knight. 


The  true  conversion  is  that  which  contemplates 
a  definite  work  to  be  done  for  God.  ''  I  thought 
on   my  ways,   and   turned    my  feet   unto  Thy 


PENITENCE  87 

testimonies.  ...  I  made  haste,  and  delayed 
not,  to  observe  Thy  commandments."  One  after 
another,  the  old  temptations  are  to  be  met 
and  conquered.  Satan  is  to  be  cast  out  by 
prayer  and  fasting.  Instead  of  pride,  wrath  and 
covetousness,  the  awakened  heart  is  to  be  ruled 
by  love,  joy,  peace.  Wasted  hours  are  to  be 
redeemed  :  the  service  which  dates  from  the 
eleventh  hour  must  be  unsparing  of  self. 

All  these  difHculties  are  freely  embraced  by 
one  who  believes  that  God's  goodness  calls  him. 
and  God's  grace  is  sufficient  for  him.  But  .  .  . 
acceptance  of  such  a  plan  of  entire  reformation 
will  be  gradual,  for  this  reason,  that  what  lies 
before  a  penitent  and  faithful  soul  is  never  revealed 
except  by  slow  degrees.  "  Whither  I  go,  thou 
canst  not  follow  Me  now,  but  thou  shalt  follow 
Me  afterwards."  "  I  have  yet  many  things  to 
say  unto  you,  but  ye  cannot  bear  them  now."  .  .. 
As  each  fresh  point  of  duty  is  perceived,  there 
must  always  be  a  fresh  movement  of  the  will, 
consenting  to  what  is  required.  This  is  to  go 
"  from  strength  to  strength." 

Edward  Churton. 

The  building  up  of  the  spirit  is  no  work  of 
wasteless  progress,  no  triumphant  march  of 
reason,  but  a  work  of  laborious  fluctuation,  of 


88  IN  TIME  OF  SICKNESS 

continual  repair,  of  going  back  upon  past  faults 
and  breaches  ;  a  picking  up  of  missed  stitches, 
an  endeavour  to  turn  losses  into  gains,  and  to 
weave  our  very  sins  into  a  garment  of  glory. 

George  Tyrrell. 

Mary  was  not  contented  with  contrition  and 
confession.  She  brake  the  box  of  ointment  and 
poured  it  on  His  feet.  Words  are  more  real 
than  thoughts,  and  therefore  confession  than 
►contrition  ;  but  deeds  are  more  real  than  words, 
and  we  have  sinned  in  the  region  of  action,  and 
therefore  our  repentance  must  go  one  step  farther 
and  become  fact. 

Satisfaction  is  not  the  whole,  but  it  is  the  crown 
and  goal  of  penitence,  whether  it  comes  in  the 
form  of  action  or  of  suffering,  or  of  both.  And 
to  make  your  satisfaction  real,  think  again  of 
the  great  human  brotherhood,  and  in  the  points 
in  which  you  have  wronged  it,  resolve  to  make 
your  amends. 

J.  R.  Illingworth. 

No  one  can  have  any  assurance  that  he  pleases 
God,  or  puts  himself  within  the  terms  of  Christian 
salvation,  but  he  who  serves  God  with  his  whole 
heart,    and    with    the    utmost    of   his    strength. 


PENITENCE  89 

Though  we  are  not  called  to  such  a  perfection 
as  implies  a  sinless  state,  though  our  imperfections 
will  not  prevent  the  Divine  mercy,  yet  it  cannot 
be  proved  that  God  has  any  terms  of  favour  for 
those  who  do  not  labour  to  be  as  perfect  as  they 
can  be.  ...  It  is  as  necessary  to  labour  after 
Perfection,  as  to  labour  after  our  Salvation, 
because  we  can  have  no  satisfaction  that  a  failure 
in  one  will  not  deprive  us  of  the  other. 

William  Law. 

There  is  not  on  the  earth  a  soul  so  base 

But  may  obtain  a  place 

In  covenanted  grace  ; 
So  that  his  feeble  prayer  of  faith  obtains 

Some  loosening  of  his  chains, 
And  earnest  of  the  great  release,  which  rise 
From  gift  to  gift,  and  reach  at  length  the  eternal   prize. 

All  may  save  self, — but  minds  that  heavenward  tower 

Aim  at  a  wider  power, 

Gifts  on  the  world  to  shower. 
And  this  is  not  at  once ; — by  fastings  gained, 

And  trials  well  sustained. 
By  pureness,  righteous  deeds,  and  toils  of  love, 
Abidance  in  the  Truth,  and  zeal  of  God  above. 

J.  H.  Newman. 

Our  earthly  nature  easily  falls  away  from  its 
higher  tone  by  reason  of  the  frailty  and    evil 


go  IN  TIME  OF  SICKNESS 

tendency  of  the  flesh,  opposing  and  dragging 
down  the  soul,  unless  it  is  constantly  rising  up 
by  means  of  a  vigorous  resolution,  just  as  a  bird 
would  speedily  fall  to  the  ground  if  it  did  net 
maintain  its  flight  by  repeated  strokes  of  its 
wings.  In  order  to  this,  you  need  frequently 
to  reiterate  the  good  resolutions  you  have  made 
to  serve  God. 

"  You  are  capable  of  realizing  a  longing  after 
God,  why  should  you  trifle  with  anything  lower  ? 
You  can  live  for  eternity,  why  should  you  stop 
short  in  time  .?  .  .  .  You  are  made  for  God, 
woe  be  to  you  if  you  stop  short  in  anything  of 
Him."  .  .  .  Lift  up  your  soul  with  thoughts 
such  as  these,  convince  it  that  it  is  eternal,  and 
worthy  of  eternity  ;  fill  it  with  courage  in  this 
pursuit. 

Consider  the  Eternal  Love  God  has  borne  you, 
in  that,  even  before  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  became 
Man  and  suffered  on  the  Cross  for  you.  His 
Divine  Majesty  designed  your  existence  and  loved 
you.  .  .  .  And  amid  the  drawings  of  His  Love 
He  led  you  to  make  these  resolutions  to  serve 
Him.  Surely  we  should  be  ready  to  suffer 
anything  whatsoever  rather  than  let  go  one 
particle  of  these  resolutions.  The  whole  world 
is  not  worth  one  soul,  and  the  soul  is  w^orth  but 
little  without  its  good  resolutions. 


PENITENCE  91 

You  must  particularize  the  necessary  means 
for  maintaining  your  good  resolutions,  determin- 
ing to  use  them  diligently,  such  as  frequency  in 
prayer,  in  communicating,  in  good  works  :  the 
amendment  of  the  faults  you  have  already  dis- 
covered, cutting  off  occasions  of  sin,  and  following 
out  carefully  all  the  advice  given  you  with  this 
view.  Then,  take  breath,  as  it  were,  in  a  renewed 
profession  of  your  resolutions,  and,  as  though  you 
held  your  heart  in  your  hands,  dedicate,  conse- 
crate, sacrifice,  immolate  it  to  God,  vowing 
never  to  recall  it,  but  leave  it  for  ever  in  the  Right 
Hand  of  His  Majesty,  prepared  everywhere  and 
in  all  things  to  obey  His  commands. 

Ask  God  to  renew  your  will,  to  bless  your 
renewed  resolutions,  and  to  strengthen  them. 

S.  Francis  de  Sales. 


jfaftb. 

TTE  saith  unto  them,  Why  are  ye  fearful,  0  ye  of  little 
^^      faith  ?  S.  Matt.  viii.  26. 

Be  imitators  of  them  who  through  faith  and  patience 
inherit  the  promises.  Heb.  vi.  12. 

According  to  your  faith  be  it  done  unto  you. 

S.  Matt.  ix.  29. 

Blessed  is  she  that  believed,  for  there  shall  be  a  fulfilment 
of  the  things  ivhich  have  been  spoken  to  her  from  the  Lord. 

S.  Luke  i.  45. 

Lord,  I  believe ;  help  Thou  mine  unbelief. 

S.  Mark  ix.  24. 

Lord,  increase  our  faith.  S.  Luke  xvii.  5. 

We  walk  by  faith,  not  by  sight.  2  Cor.  v.  7. 

Faith  is  the  assurance  of  things  hoped  for,  the  proviiig  of 
things  not  seen.  Heb.  xi.  i. 

By  faith  .  .  .  Moses  .  .  .  endured,  as  seeing  Him  Who  is 
invisible.  Heb.  xi.  27. 

We  look  not  at  the  things  which  are  seen,  but  at  the 
things  which  are  not  seen :  for  the  things  which  are  seen 
are  temporal ;  but  the  things  which  are  not  seen  are  eternal. 

2  Cor.  iv.  18. 

//  any  man  willeth  to  do  His  will,  he  shall  know  of  the 
teaching,  whether  it  be  of  God.  S.  John  vii.  17. 

92 


FAITH  93 

We  knoiv  and  have  believed  the  love  which  God  hath 
in  us.  I  S.  John  iv.  i6. 

Act  of  Faith. 

O  my  God,  I  believe  in  Thee,  One  God  in  Three 
Persons.  I  beHeve  that  Jesus  Christ  came  down  from 
heaven  and  died  for  me,  and  I  beHeve  all  the  truths 
that  He  has  taught  me  in  His  Word  and  in  His  Church. 
Lord,  I  believe;  help  Thou  mine  unbelief. 

O  Almighty  God,  Whom  truly  to  know  is  everlasting 
life.  Grant  us  perfectly  to  know  Thy  Son  Jesus 
Christ  to  be  the  way,  the  truth,  and  the  life  :  that, 
following  the  steps  of  Thy  holy  Apostles  ...  we 
may  stedfastly  walk  in  the  way  that  leadeth  to  eternal 
life  :  through  the  same  Thy  Son  Jesus  Christ  our 
Lord. — Collect  jar  S.  Philip  and  S.  James'  Day. 

Almighty  and  everliving  God,  Who,  for  the  more 
confirmation  of  the  faith,  didst  suffer  Thy  holy  Apostle 
Thomas  to  be  doubtful  in  Thy  Son's  resurrection  : 
grant  us  so  perfectly,  and  without  all  doubt,  to  believe 
in  Thy  Son  Jesus  Christ,  that  our  faith  in  Thy  sight 
may  never  be  reproved.  Hear  us,  O  Lord,  through 
the  same  Jesus  Christ,  to  Whom,  with  Thee  and  the 
Holy  Ghost,  be  all  honour  and  glory,  now  and  for  ever- 
more.— Collect  jar  S.  Thomas''  Day. 

Grant  us,  O  Lord,  we  pray  Thee,  to  trust  in  Thee 
with  all  our  heart,  seeing  that,  as  Thou  dost  always 
resist  the  proud  who  confide  in  their  own  strength,  so 
Thou  dost  not  forsake  those  who  make  their  boast  of 
Thy  mercy  :    through  Jesus  Christ  our  Lord. 

We  beseech  Thee,  O  Lord,  continually  to  strengthen 
us  with  a  holy  faith  in  Thine  Incarnation,  that  the 
crafty  enemy  may  never  be  able  to  overcome  us  who 
are  established  in  the  love  of  Thee. 

O  God,  Who  art  One  and  True,  we  humbly  beseech 
Thee  that  the   Catholic  Faith,   which  is  acceptable 


94  IN  TIME  OF  SICKNESS 

to  Thee,  may  continue  for  ever  in  us  all ;    through 
Jesus  Christ  our  Lord. 

Almighty  and  everlasting  God,  give  unto  us  the 
increase  of  faith,  hope,  and  charity  :  and,  that  we 
may  obtain  that  which  Thou  dost  promise,  make  us 
to  love  that  which  Thou  dost  command  :  through 
Jesus  Christ  our  Lord.— Co//^c^  Jor  lUh  Sunday  after 
Trinity, 


Firmly  I  believe  and  truly 

God  is  Three,  and  God  is  One ; 

And  I  next  acknowledge  duly 

Manhood  taken  by  the  Son. 

And  I  trust  and  hope  most  fully 

In  that  Manhood  crucified  ; 

And  each  thought  and  deed  unruly 

Do  to  death,  as  He  has  died. 

Simply  to  His  grace  and  wholly 
Light  and  life  and  strength  belong, 
And  I  love  supremely,  solely, 
Him  the  holy,  Him  the  strong. 
And  I  hold  in  veneration, 
For  the  love  of  Him  alone. 
Holy  Church  as  His  creation. 
And  her  teachings  as  His  own. 
Adoration  aye  be  given. 
With  and  through  the  angelic  host, 
To  the  God  of  earth  and  Heaven, 
Father,  Son  and  Holy  Ghost. 

J.    H.    Ni  VMAN. 


FAITH  95 

3t0  mature. 

What  is  Faith  ?  If  I  were  to  say  that  it  is  the 
absolute  condition  of  all  life,  of  all  action,  of  all 
thought  which  goes  beyond  the  limitations  of 
our  own  minds,  I  should  use  no  exaggeration. 

Faith  is  in  every  age,  under  all  circumstances, 
that  by  which  man  lays  hold  on  the  realities 
which  underlie  the  changeful  appearances  of 
things,  and  gives  substance  to  hope,  that  by 
which  he  enters  into  actual  communion  with  the 
powers  of  the  unseen  world  and  brings  their  mani- 
festation to  a  sovereign  test.  It  is  the  harmony 
of  reason  and  feeling  and  purpose.  It  is,  to  say 
all  briefly,  thought  illuminated  by  emotion  and 
concentrated  by  will. 

Faith,  as  applied  to  our  present  life,  is  a 
principle  of  knowledge,  a  principle  of  power,  a 
principle  of  action.  It  may  be  quickened  and 
intensified  ;  it  may  be  dulled  and  neglected.  As 
it  is  used  so  it  will  be  fruitful ;  and  we  are  severally 
responsible  for  the  use  which  we  make  of  it. 

What  is  Faith  to  us  ?      Perhaps  as  we  come  to 

feel  more  distinctly  what  it  is  capable  of  being, 

we  shall  answer  best,  mindful  of  our  selfishness, 

of  our  triviality,  of  our  forgetfulness  of  God,  by 

praying  that  whatever  it  is,  it   may  hereafter  be 

far  more. 

Bishop  Westcott. 


96  7A^   TIME  OF  SICKNESS 

Now  faith  may  be  thus  understood  ;  it  is  that 
power  by  which  a  man  gives  himself  up  to  any- 
thing, seeks,  wills,  adheres  to,  and  unites  with 
it,  so  that  his  life  lives  in  it,  and  belongs  to  it.  Now 
to  whatever  the  soul  gives  itself  up  ;  whatever 
it  hungereth  after  ;  and  in  which  it  delights,  and 
seeks  to  be  united ;  there,  and  there  only,  is 
its  faith  ;  that  faith  which  can  work  either  life  or 
death,  and  according  to  which  faith,  everything 
is,  and  must  be  done  to  man. 

William  Law. 


Faith  in  some  form  or  other  seems  to  be  almost 
a  necessary  condition,  if  not  of  life,  yet  of  the 
most  fruitful  and  noble  life.  .  .  .  Most  men^ 
I  think,  are  significant,  and  find  and  make  life 
significant,  in  proportion  to  their  faith. 

J.  N.  Figgis. 

Faith  is  the  sense  and  the  call  of  the  open 
horizon.  If  we  abstract  it  from  the  forms  in 
which  we  clothe  it,  from  the  specific  beliefs  which 
are,  as  it  were,  its  projection  into  our  intelligence, 
it  presents  itself  as  the  spring  of  our  whole  life, 
including  our  intellectual  life.  It  is  the  impulse 
to  grow  and  expand  ;  and  just  because  it  is  that 
it  has  itself  no  form,  but  may  assume  any  form. 


FAITH 


97 


It  is  a  taper  burning  now  bright,  now  dim,  and 
changing  colour  and  substance  with  every  change 
in  the  stuff  it  consumes.  The  frailest  thing  we 
know,  it  is  also  the  least  perishable,  for  it  is  a 
tongue  of  the  Central  Fire  that  burns  at  the  heart 
of  the  world. 

G.  Lowes    Dickinson. 

People  commonly  assume  that  religious  faith 
consists  in  holding  an  intricate  and  complicated 
system  of  beliefs.  .  .  .  The  real  process  is 
both  simpler  and  more  difficult.  Faith  has  first 
to  shine  within  us,  giving  light  to  all  the  blind 
gropings,  the  immature  instincts,  the  faltering 
affirmations,  which  are  the  chaotic  fragments 
of  a  spiritual  nature  ;  all  the  hopes,  questionings, 
presentiments,  doubts,  aspirations,  which,  at  the 
shining  of  that  light,  are  to  come  to  a  knowledge 
of  themselves,  and  find  their  own  meaning  and 
value  as  a  living  experience  of  God. 

In  the  light  and  fire  of  this  experience,  faith 
itself  will  be  purified  and  chastened,  and  will 
emerge  from  it  as  a  knowledge  of  God. 

Arthur  Chandler. 

It  is  of  the  Christian  Faith  as  revealed  that 
we  are  now  to  think — ^that  faith  by  which  we  see 

A.Q.  H 


98  7A^   TIME  OF  SICKNESS 

the  world  as  a  society  of  free, created,  and  immortal 
spirits,  a  world  of  real  chances  and  incalculable 
catastrophes,  a  world  of  broken  harmonies,  of 
pain  and  sin  :  withal  its  Maker  known  to  us  as 
Father  and  Friend,  His  love  flashing  out  in  the 
most  astounding  marvels,  the  Incarnation  and 
Death  of  the  One-begotten — Whose  rising  is  less  a 
wonder  than  His  dying  if  He  be  Who  He  is — 
Who  hy  His  Cross  redeems  us  now,  and  in  His 
Body  the  Church  gives  us  in  Baptism  and  the 
Eucharist  the  very  spirit  and  essence  of  eternal 
life. 

This  world  with  God  its  blazing  fact,  and 
prayer  and  faith  real  forces  stronger  than  the 
armies  of  evil,  though  quite  congruous  to  common 
sense  and  our  inner  life,  is  incongruous  with  any 
mechanical  system,  whether  of  forces  or  ideas, 
or  with  an  Absolute  which  is  unrevealable  even 
in  symbol. 

J.  N.   Figgis. 


If  faith  be  honest  and  sincere,  however  small 
may  be  the  present  amount,  it  contains  the  whole 
future  development.  When  our  Lord  says  to 
His  disciples,  "  If  ye  have  faith  as  a  grain  of  mus- 
tard seed,  nothing  shall  be  impossible  unto  you," 
He  does  not  mean  that  the  -very  smallest  measure 


FAITH  99 

of  faith  will  then  and  there  be  able  to  work 
miracles,  but  that  it  will  go  on  till  it  becomes  able 
to  work  them,  because  a  true  faith  necessarily 
expands. 

A.  J.  Mason. 

S.  Paul  meant  by  "  faith  which  is  in  Christ 
Jesus  "  not  less  than  this — the  surrender  of  one's 
life  to  Christ,  to  be  conformed  to  His  example-, 
guided  by  the  daily  disclosure  of  His  will, 
informed  and  strengthened  by  His  grace  ;  the 
conviction  that  for  His  sake,  and  by  the  power 
of  His  perfect  sacrifice,  we  can  be  set  free  from 
the  sins  that  hinder  and  defile  us,  and  know  the 
miracle  of  God's  forgiveness  ;  the  growing 
certainty  that  He  Himself,  our  Blessed  Lord, 
vouchsafes  to  come  and  dwell  within  us,  by  the 
operation  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  giving  us  His  own 
life,  and  making  us  strong  to  be  true,  and  humble, 
and  patient,  and  unselfish  :  strict  with  ourselves, 
as  knowing  how  much  need  we  have  of  strictness ; 
gentle,  and  making  large  allowances  for  others, 
as  never  knowing  how  sorely  they  are  tried  ; — 
enabling  us,  in  spite  of  all  that  is  past,  to  follow 
the  blessed  steps  of  His  most  holy  life. 

So  may  we  live  by  faith,  in  living  union 
with  Him,  seeking  continually  through  deeper 


100  IN  TIME  OF  SICKNESS 

penitence,  through  the  nearer  knowledge  of  His 
life,  through  the  less  unworthy  welcome  of  His 
Eucharistic  Presence,  to  open  out  our  hearts  more 
freely  to  His  love,  to  enthrone  Him  in  steadier 
supremacy  over  all  our  ways. 

Francis  Paget. 


Everywhere  faith,  or  the  capacity  of  receiving, 
has  a  power  to  claim  and  command  the  thing 
which  it  needs.  ...  A  disbelieving  life  becomes 
a  barren  life  .  .  .  the  nature  which  distrusts 
gets  nothing  from  the  man  in  whom  it  disbelieves. 

Faith  is  such  a  relation  of  one  being  to  another 
higher  being  as  opens  the  higher  being's  nature 
to  the  lower,  and  makes  a  ready  gift  of  the  higher 
to  the  lower  possible. 

At  any  time,  in  any  place,  wherever  God  wills, 
whenever  the  man's  soul  is  ready,  the  gates  open 
slowly  or  suddenly  :  the  soul  has  faith  in  God, 
and  God  is  given  to  the  soul.  The  whole  of  life 
until  that  comes  is  but  a  growth,  a  struggle,  a 
reaching  out  to  that. 

Phillips  Brooks. 


Faith  is  the  response  of   our  whole  soul,  not 
of  the  mind  alone,  but  also  of  the  heart    and 


FAITH  loi 

affections  and  social  instincts,  to  Christ  and  to 

His  Church. 

George  Tyrrell. 

Faith  is  that  temper  of  sympathetic  and  imme- 
diate response  to  Another's  will  which  belongs 
to  a  recognized  relationship  of  vital  communion. 
It  is  the  spirit  of  confident  surrender,  which  can 
only  be  justified  by  an  inner  identification  of 
the  life. 

Unless  this  inner  relationship  be  a  fact,  faith 
could  not  account  for  itself  :  but  if  it  be  a  fact, 
it  must  constitute  a  fixed  and  necessary  demand 
upon  all  men.  All  are,  equally,  "  children  of 
God  "  :  and  the  answer  to  the  question,  "  Why 
should  I  believe  ?  "  must  be,  for  ever  and  for  all, 
valid  :   "  because  you  are  a  child  of  God." 

Faith  itself  lies  deeper  than  all  the  capacities 

of  which  it  makes  use  :  it  is,  itself,  the  primal  act 

of  the  elemental  self,  there  at  the  root  of  life, 

where  the  being  is  yet  whole  and  entire,  a  single 

personal  individuality,  unbroken  and  undivided. 

Faith,  which  is  the  germinal  act  of  our  love  for 

God,  is  an  act  of  the  whole  self,  there  where  it 

is  one,  before  it  has  parted  off  into  what  we  can 

roughly  describe  as  separate  and  distinguishable 

faculties. 

H.  S.  Holland. 


102  IN  TIME  OF  SICKNESS 

a  (Bitt  of  (Bob. 

They  shall  all  be  taught  of  God.  s.  John  vi.  45. 

That  the  God  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  the  Father  of 
glory,  may  give  unto  you  a  spirit  of  wisdom  and  revelation 
in  the  knowledge  of  Him. 

Having  the  eyes  of  your  heart  enlightened,  that  ye  may 
know  what  is  the  hope  of  His  calling.         Eph.  i.  17,  18. 


The  Apostles'  Creed  is  mainly  a  plain  statement 
of  matters  of  fact  ;  yet,  as  a  formula  of  belief,  it 
appeals,  not  to  the  critical  and  calculative  under- 
standing which  is  used  in  the  discussion  or  the 
examination  of  historical  evidence,  but  to  the 
spiritual  and  apprehensive  faculties,  which  lay 
hold  of  eternal  verities.  It  does  so  because  the 
belief  w^hich  it  asks  for  is  not  the  mere  belief  that 
the  facts  occurred.  Such  a  belief  would  be  quite 
possible  without  anything  that  could  be  called 
"  faith."  What  it  asks  for  as  "  faith  "  is  the  com- 
mittal of  the  self  to  these  facts  as  to  spiritual  acts, 
in  which  the  eternal  Love  and  Will  of  God  have 
entered  upon  the  scene  of  our  human  story,  and 
have  taken  definite  action  therein.  To  these 
acts  God  stands  committed.  And  to  these  acts 
He  asks  man  to  commit  himself  in  his  entire 
being,  so  that  he  may  pass  under  their  power 
and  pressure  and  accept  all  their  consequences, 


FAITH  103 

and  yield  himself  to  that  which  God,  in  them, 
sets  moving.  So  surrendering  himself,  he  brings 
to  bear  upon  himself  the  full  force  of  those 
energies  which  the  Eternal  Love  has  evoked  on 

his  behalf. 

H.  S.  Holland. 


Baptism  has  been  called  the  sacrament  of 
illumination,  in  that  the  germ  of  faith  is  then 
planted  in  the  soul.  When  the  Psalmist  exclaims, 
"  the  Lord  is  my  light  and  salvation,  whom  then 
shall  I  fear  ?  "  mystical  writers  have  detected  a 
reference  to  the  effect  of  Baptism  ;  whea  he 
adds  "  the  Lord  is  the  strength  of  my  life,  of 
whom  then  shall  I  be  afraid  ?  "  to  the  effect  of 
Confirmation. 

"  The  eyes  of  the  heart  "  are  enlightened  by 
the  virtue  of  faith.  This  enlightenment  is  an 
inner  shining  ;  not  the  light  of  knowledge  gained 
by  culture,  or  by  the  exercise  of  the  senses,  but 
an  inner  manifestation  of  God  to  the  soul. 

Though  in  darkness,  the  understanding  has 
yet  the  capacity  for  light,  like  the  man  who  is 
groping  in  the  night.  The  Holy  Spirit,  as  the 
Illuminator,  dispels  the  darkness  and  amplifies 
the  view,  correcting  and  ennobling  the  natural 


104  IN  TIME  OF  SICKNESS 

faculty  with  the  virtue  of  faith  and  the  gifts 
of  wisdom,  understanding,  knowledge  and  counsel. 

W.    H.    HUTCHINGS. 


Faith  grounds  itself,  solely  and  wholly,  on  an 
inner  and  vital  relation  of  the  soul  to  its  source. 
This  source  is  most  certainly  elsewhere  ;  it  is 
not  within  the  compass  of  the  soul's  own  activity. 
In  some  mode,  inconceivable  and  mysterious, 
our  life  issues  out  of  an  impenetrable  background  ; 
and  as  our  life  includes  spiritual  elements,  that 
background  has  spiritual  factors ;  and  as  our 
life  is  personal,  within  that  background  exists 
personality. 

This  supply  of  life  in  which  we  begin,  from 
out  of  which  our  being  opens,  can  never  cease, 
so  long  as  we  exist,  to  sustain  us  by  one  continuous 
act.  Ever  its  resources  flow  in  ;  ever  its  vital 
support  is  unwithdrawn.  In  some  fashion  or 
another  we  all  know  that  this  must  be  so  :  and 
the  Christian  Creed  only  lifts  into  clear  daylight, 
and  endows  with  perfect  expression,  this  elemen- 
tary and  universal  verity,  when  it  asserts  that 
at  the  very  core  of  each  man's  being  lies,  and 
lives,  and  moves,  and  works,  the  creative  energy 


FAITH  105 

of  the  Divine  Will — "  the  Will  of  our  Father 
which  is  in  Heaven." 

H.  S.  Holland. 


Besides  our  mental  incapacity  and  ignorance, 
our  moral  incapacity  makes  us  unfit  to  receive 
the  full  light  all  at  once. 

There  must  be  an  infinity  of  truths  in  God's 
mind  which  as  yet  we  are  mentally  and  morally 
incapable  of  receiving  ;  and  for  this  reason,  as 
well  as  for  others,  His  revelation,  being  only  a 
fractional  truth,  must  necessarily  seem  mys- 
terious, disjointed  and  even  perverse. 

George  Tyrrell. 


We  must  think  of  faith  not  as  an  effort  of  the 
intellectual  power  only,  but  as  an  energy  of  our 
whole  personality,  gathering  all  the  faculties  of 
our  nature  and  offering  them  alive  to  God. 

Faith  seems  to  be  an  awakening  of  our  per- 
sonality by  the  Holy  Spirit  to  the  consciousness 
of  God,  and  to  its  need  of  God,  Who  is  its  life. 

The  dead  soul  that  does  not  live  by  faith  can 
catch  some  intellectual  view  of  the  objects  of 
faith  and  of  Christian  doctrine,  but  this  view 
cannot  produce  that  profound  interior  revolution 


io6  7A^   TIME  OF  SICKNESS 

in  a  man's  character  which  we  call  conversion, 
that  growing  likeness  to  Christ  which  comes  of 
the  fellowship  of  union  with  Christ. 

Faith  is  an  act  of  the  higher  life,  an  energy  of 
the  life  of  God  in  a  man, — an  act  which  affects 
him  profoundly,  and  leaves  its  mark  in  character. 

The  man  of  faith  who  feeds  upon  God  has 
no  fear  of  exhausting  the  supply  which  is  his  life, 
for  he  feeds  upon  the  infinite. 

George  Congreve. 


We  may  consider  Christian  faith  as  a  super- 
natural gift  of  God  to  us,  a  "  power  of  the  world 
to  come,"  enabling  us  to  live  already  in  a  higher 
world  than  that  which  is  seen,  a  faculty  for 
approaching  God,  touching  God  personally, 
possessing  God  Himself — the  faculty  by  which 
every  relation  to  God  is  realized  and  vitalized. 

As  we  begin  to  use  this  higher  faculty,  we  find 
ourselves  no  longer  imprisoned  by  circumstances 
from  which  there  is  no  escape.  The  imprisoning 
circumstances  remain,  but  there  is  no  prisoner. 
Faith  in  Christ  gave  him  secret  access  to  another 
world,  and  he  is  free.  There  was  no  external 
change,  nothing  was  seen  to  happen  ;  the  man 
prayed  in  secret,  and  the  prayer  of  faith  proved 
to  be  a  working  of  the  Holy  Ghost  in  his  mind. 


FAITH  107 

and  heart,  and  will,  and  he  became  conscious 
of  light  and  power  within,  enabling  him  to  rise 
out  of  his  own  emptiness,  folly  and  sadness. 

Ibid. 


Hn  Hbventure* 

Abraham  .  .  .  went  out,  not  knowing  whither  he  went. 

Heb.  xi. 

What  the  Apostle  says  of  Abraham  is  a  descrip- 
tion of  all  true  faith  :  it  goes  out,  not  knowing 
whither  it  goes.  It  does  not  crave  or  bargain 
to  see  the  end  of  the  journey  ;  it  does  not  argue, 
with  S.  Thomas  in  the  days  of  his  ignorance, 
"  we  know  not  whither,  and  how  can  we  know 
the  way  ?  "  It  is  persuaded  that  it  has  quite 
enough  light  to  walk  by,  far  more  than  sinful 
man  has  a  right  to  expect,  if  it  sees  one  step  in 
advance ;  and  it  leaves  all  knowledge  of  the 
country  over  which  it  is  journeying,  to  Him  Who 
calls  it  on. 

J.  H.  Newman. 

Perhaps  if  God's  existence  had  been  one  of 
those  things  of  which  formal  proof  could  be  given 
to  the  world,  the  acknowledged  fact  would  have 


io8  IN   TIME  OF  SICKNESS 

lost  its  interest.  It  would  have  killed  individual 
inquiry.  .  .  .  We  should  have  lost  all  those 
touching  and  noble  associations  which  gather 
round  the  name  of  faith,  and  should  have  had 
instead  a  cold  science — common  property,  and 
so  appropriated  by  none.  As  it  is,  each  man 
has  to  prove  the  fact  for  himself.  It  is  the  great 
adventure,  the  great  romance  of  every  soul — 
this  finding  of  God.  Though  so  many  travellers 
have  crossed  the  ocean  before  us,  and  bear  witness 
of  the  glorious  continent  beyond,  each  soul  for 
itself  has  to  repeat  the  work  of  a  Columbus,  and 
discover  God  afresh.  And  this  can  indeed  be 
done ;  but  intellectual  argument  is  not  the 
sole  nor  the  main  means  of  apprehension.  At 
best  it  prepares  the  way.  Moral  purification 
is  equally  necessary.  Then  spiritual  effort,  deter- 
mined, concentrated,  renewed  in  spite  of  failure 
— calm  and  strong  prayers  in  the  Name  of  Christ 
— enable  the  believer  to  say,  like  Jacob  after 
he  had  wrestled  with  the  Angel, — ^'  I  have  seen 
God  face  to  face,  and  my  life  is  preserved." 

A.  J.  Mason. 


If  the  reasons  for  God's  dealings  were  always 
clear,  there  would  be  no  room  for  the  exercise 
of  real  trust.     We  have  no  need  to  trust  about 


FAITH  109 

what  we  see  quite  plainly.  The  end,  the  final 
issues,  may  be  far  from  clear  to  us,  but  enough 
has  been  shown  us  to  enable  us  to  depend 
absolutely  on  Him  for  the  rest. 

Some  manifestation  of  His  thought  and  love 
for  each  of  us  individually  He  has  given  us  ere 
now.  Therefore,  "  Whatsoever  He  saith  unto 
you,  do  it." 

Bishop  Webb. 

You  must  mix  some  uncertainty 

With  faith,  if  you  would  have  faith  be. 

R.  Browning. 

Any  religion  would  be  a  calamity  which 
quenched  this  sense  of  the  great  human  adventure 
in  the  unknown.  There  is  no  certainty  which 
could  be  other  than  dull,  hard  and  materialistic, 
compared  with  the  infinite  hopes  and  possibilities 
of  this  spiritual  quest. 

Only  stupid  people  sneer  at  the  man  who  says 
"  Credo  quia  impossibile."  To  have  faith  in 
the  impossible  is  precisely  the  function  of  religion. 

J.  A.  Spender. 

Faith  is  pledged  to  use  all  possible  guidance 
and  direction  in  making  its  great  act  of  self- 


no  IN  TIME  OF  SICKNESS 

surrender  to  God.  And  it  is  the  peculiar  office 
of  reason,  and  of  the  rational  conscience,  to 
guard  it  from  any  distorted  and  unworthy 
venture.  Faith  has  to  make  its  leap  ;  but  to 
make  it  exactly  in  that  direction,  and  in  no 
other,  where  reason  point  the  way. 

It  is  bound,  as  an  act  of  the  whole  man,  to 
use  every  conceivable  means  and  security  which 
knowledge  can  bring  it. 

It  cannot  afford  to  enter  on  that  venturous 
committal  of  itself  less  equipped  and  instructed 
than  it  was  open  to  it  to  be.  It  must  put  all 
to  use  that  can  better  its  offer  of  itself  to  God. 

H.  S.  Holland. 


Faith  must  always  remain  beyond  its  realized 
evidences. 

There  will  come  at  last  the  moment  when  the 
call  to  believe  will  be  just  the  same  to  the  complete 
and  reasonable  man  as  it  always  is  to  the  simplest 
child — the  call  to  trust  Another  with  a  confidence 
which  reason  can  justify  but  can  never  create. 
This  act,  which  is  faith,  must  have  in  it  that 
spirit  of  venture,  which  closes  with  Another's 
invitation,  which  yields  to  Another's  call.  It 
must  still  have  in  it  and  about  it  the  character  of  a 
vital  motion — of  a  leap  upward,  which  dares  to 


FAITH  III 

count    on    the     prompting    energies    felt     astir 
within  it.  j^^^^ 


Revelation,  in  most  cases,  throws  light  on 
nature,  and  anticipates  the  slow  and  uncertain 
fruits  of  philosophy  ;  and  the  revealed  idea  of 
the  Communion  of  Saints,  of  the  mystical  Body 
of  Christ,  of  the  Blessed  Trinity,  and  the  depend- 
ent conception  of  Divine  Charity,  all  seem  to 
presuppose  and  expand  the  relationship  here 
suggested  between  soul  and  soul ;  all  imply  that 
man's  final  blessedness  and  perfection  consist 
in  a  likeness  and  union  with  the  Holy  Trinity 
where  Three  Persons  enjoy  one  and  the  same 
life,  thought  and  love  ;  in  the  adoption  of  all 
created  souls  into  that  same  unity  ;  in  the  com- 
munizing  of  all  our  experience  and  the  breaking 
down  of  those  cell-walls  that  now  make  us  mys- 
teries one  to  another  ;  in  the  perfect  transparency 
of  every  mind  to  every  mind,  and  of  every  heart 
to  every  heart ;  so  that  there  shall  be  many  eyes 
but  one  vision  ;  many  tongues  but  one  word  ; 
many  hearts  but  one  joy. 

George  Tyrrell. 


Faith,  like  all  trust,  is  an  act  of  the  will,  which 


112  IN  TIME  OF  SICKNESS 

decides  to  take  risks ;  and  so,  whenever  it  is 
tried,  it  must  involve  courage.  .  .  .  Courage  may 
not  be  the  one  virtue,  .  .  .  but  it  is  a  very 
real  grace  ;  it  embraces  a  wider  scope  than  is 
often  supposed,  and  carries  us  on  from  the 
simplest  acts  to  the  heights  of  sacrifice  and  faith. 
...  If  there  were  no  difficulties  or  perplexities, 
if  belief  were  a  mathematical  certitude,  there 
could  be  none  of  that "  personal  trust  in  a  person," 
none  of  that  elan  of  victory  and  freedom  which 
belongs  to  faith.  It  is  not  by  ignoring  our 
difficulties  or  treating  them  as  unreal,  that  we 
can  have  the  joy  of  faith  ;  but  by  finding  in  them 
the  secret  of  our  power. 

J.  N.  Figgis. 


At  first,  faith  need  not  be  more  than  the  accept- 
ance of  a  few  central  facts  of  revelation.  These 
will  be  sufficient  to  illuminate  and  justify  that 
primitive,  deep-seated  instinct  of  kinship  with 
God  which  we  recognized  at  the  beginning  as 
the  raw  material  of  religion,  and  which  we  saw 
giving  expression  to  itself  in  an  imperfectly 
understood  ritual  of  sacrifice  and  communion. 
Such  a  faith,  again,  will  be  sufficient  to  illuminate 
and  justify  the  obstinate  conviction  that  the 
values  which  we  blindly  pursue  and  cherish  are 


FAITH  113 

perfectly  realized  and  eternally  conserved  in  Him 
Who  is  the  Word  and  Wisdom  of  the  Father. 

What  an  unlimited  opening  does  faith  thus 
provide  for  the  development  of  religion ;  for 
the  garnering  of  religious  experience  in  prayer 
and  meditation  ;  for  the  confident  quest  of 
the  true,  the  beautiful,  and  the  good  ;  for  the 
practice  of  fellowship  w^ith  all  who  share  the 
clansmen's  sacrificial  feast  and  are  pledged  thereby 
to  mutual  service  ! 

Arthur  Chandler. 


Strong  Son  of  God,  immortal  Love, 
Whom  we,  that  have  not  seen  Thy  face. 
By  faith,  and  faith  alone »  embrace. 

Believing  where  we  cannot  prove. 

***** 

We  have  but  faith  :  we  cannot  know  ; 

For  knowledge  is  of  things  we  see ; 

And  yet  we  trust  it  comes  from  Thee, 
A  beam  in  darkness  :  let  it  grow. 

Let  knowledge  grow  from  more  to  more, 
But  more  of  reverence  in  us  dwell ; 
That  mind  and  soul,  according  well. 

May  make  one  music  as  before. 

But  vaster. 

Tennyson. 

A.G,  I 


114  J^  TIME  OF  SICKNESS 

Faith  is,  everywhere,  a  holding  on  by  the  will 
to  truths  which  for  the  moment  the  mind  does 
not  see,  or  is  incapable  of  seeing. 

Faith  is  a  voluntary  holding  to  truths  that 
were  accepted  by  us  in  the  hour  of  peace,  but 
which  are  now  obscured  in  the  darkness  of  passion 
and  temptation. 

George  Tyrrell. 

ZbvowQb  jEyperience* 

Faith  is  not  mere  belief  ;  but  such  belief  as 
leads  us  to  have  confidence  in  God — confidence 
in  what  He  is  to  us,  and  does  for  us,  and  asks  of 
us,  with  the  necessary  implication  of  a  response 
on  our  part.  And  when  we  speak  of  a  living, 
or  lively  faith,  we  mean  a  faith  by  which  we  live 
in  conscious  response  to  God's  love  and  its 
demands  upon  us  ;  trusting  Him  for  to-morrow 
because  we  know  that  we  are  obeying  Him  to-day. 

J.  R.  Illingworth. 


*^  To  him  who  waits,  all  things  reveal  them- 
selves," provided  that  he  has  the  courage  not 
to  deny  in  the  darkness  what  he  has  seen  in  the 
light. 

Coventry  Patmore. 


FAITH  115 

God  !  Thou  art  love  !     I  build  my  faith  on  that. 
Even  as  I  watch  beside  Thy  tortured  child 
Unconscious  whose  hot  tears  fall  fast  by  him, 
So  doth  Thy  right  hand  guide  us  through  the  world 
Wherein  we  stumble.  .  .  . 

I  know  Thee,  Who  hast  kept  my  path,  and  made 
Light  for  me  in  the  darkness,  tempering  sorrow 
So  that  it  reached  me  like  a  solemn  joy  ; 
It  were  too  strange  that  I  should  doubt  Thy  love. 

R.  Browning. 

True  faith  is  not  dependent  upon  nature,  it 
does  not  arise  by  the  accumulation  of  a  multitude 
of  particulars  in  experience  ;  it  grows  from  a 
root  of  vital  intercourse. 

P.  N.  Waggett. 


What  is  that  life  of  faith  which  historically 
began  with  Abraham  ?  It  is  a  friendship,  an 
intimacy,  between  man  and  God,  between  a 
son  and  a  father.  Such  an  intimacy  cannot  be 
idle  or  stagnant  ;  it  cannot  arrest  its  instinctive 
development.  It  holds  in  it  infinite  possibilities 
of  growth ;  of  increasing  familiarity,  of  multiplied 
communion.  And  thus,  such  a  friendship  creates 
a  story  of  its  own  :  it  has  its  jars,  its  frictions, 
its  entanglements  ;  alas  !  on  one  side,  its  lapses, 
its  quarrels,  its  blunders,  its  misunderstandings  : 


ii6  IN  TIME  OF  SICKNESS 

and  then,  on  the  other,  its  corresponding  indig- 
nations, and  withdrawals  and  rebukes  :  and,  yet 
again,  its  reconciliations,  its  reactions,  its  pardons, 
its  victories. 

Ever  it  moves  forward  on  its  chequered  path  : 
ever  God,  the  good  Friend,  spends  Himself  in 
recovering  the  intimacy,  in  renewing  it,  in  purg- 
ing it,  in  raising  it.  Its  conditions  expand  ; 
its  demands  intensify ;  its  perils  deepen  ;  its 
glories  gather  ;  until  it  consummates  its  effort 
in  the  perfected  communion  of  God  and  man — 
in  Him,  Who  completes  and  closes  the  story 
of  His  ever-growing  intimacy,  by  that  act  of 
supreme  condescension  which  brings  down  God 
to  inhabit  and  possess  the  heart  of  man  :  and 
by  that  act  of  supreme  exaltation,  which  uplifts 
man  into  absolute  union  with  the  God  Who 
made  him. 

H.  S.  Holland. 


In  this  story  (of  Lazarus)  we  have  the  rebuke 
of  our  faithlessness.  Jesus  did  love  ;  He  did 
receive  the  message  ;  but  He  allowed  physical 
laws  to  finish  their  work,  and  Lazarus  died. 
Yet  when  Martha  doubted.  He  answered,  "  Said 
I  not  unto  thee,  that  if  thou  wouldest  believe, 
thou  shouldest  see  the  glory  of  God  ?  "  .  .  . 


FAITH  117 

In  this  act  of  His,  He  is  the  mystery  of  Providence 
made  plain  .  .  .  Time  itself  may  pass  before  we 
see  (His  purpose)  :  but  it  is  not  lost  to  the  eternal 
sight  of  God,  to  Whom  a  thousand  years  are  as 
one  day.  .  .  .  We  are  simply  and  resolutely 
to  believe  that,  behind  and  in  spite  of  all  the 
perplexity  of  outward  seeming,  a  higher  law, 
"  for  the  glory  of  God,"  is  working,  and  will, 
in  God's  own  way  and  time,  achieve  its  end,  and 
we  shall  see  it. 

There  are  two  tests  of  the  reality  of  faith  in 
the  love  of  God  :  the  one  the  instinct  of  prayer 
the  other  the  power  of  waiting. 

Archbishop  Lang. 

Does  the  precept  run  "  Believe  in  good, 

In  justice,  truth,  now  understood 

For  the  first  time  ?  "  or,  "  Believe  in  Me, 

Who  lived  and  died,  yet  essentially 

Am  Lord  of  Life  ?  ''    Whoever  can  take 

The  same  to  his  heart  and  for  mere  love's  sake 

Conceive  of  the  love, — ^that  man  obtains 

A  new  truth ;  no  conviction  gains 

Of  an  old  one  only,  made  intense 

By  a  fresh  appeal  to  his  faded  sense. 

R.  Browning. 

He  who,  in  his  inward  and  outward  life,  puts 
Christ  before  all,  even  before  his  own  life  an 


ii8  IN   TIME  OF  SICKNESS 

the  objects  of  his  deepest  affection,  thereby 
admits  His  Godhead  with  a  conviction  more  vital 
than  any  of  which  the  bare  intellect  is  capable. 
It  is  from  the  whole  soul  and  not  from  the 
surface  of  the  mind  alone,  that  we  must  answer 
the  question  "  What  think  ye  of  Christ  ?  Whose 
son  is  He  ?  " 

George  Tyrrell. 


Faith  is  not  a  crop  which  springs  out  of  the 
world  to  reward  a  careless  harvester  ;  it  is  rather 
the  work  of  a  soul  which,  out  of  a  world  which 
would  otherwise  seem  dead,  extracts  the  answer 
of  confidence  in  God.  Did  I  speak  of  the  world 
as  if  it  were  empty  of  meaning  ?  It  is  alive 
with  meaning,  filled  with  a  voice  of  God.  But 
it  is  the  voice  rather  of  God's  question  to  us 
than  of  His  answer.  It  challenges,  it  provokes 
the  response  of  faith,  and  the  dark  places,  the 
breaks — 

"  What  if  the  breaks  themselves  should  prove  at  last 
The  most  consummate  of  contrivances 
To  train  a  man's  eye,  teach  him  what  is  faith  ? 
And  so  we  stumble  at  truth's  very  test." 

(R.  Browning.) 
P.  N.  Waggett. 


FAITH  119 

For  an  ideal,  or  for  a  principle,  men  have  been 
found  willing  and  able  to  give  up  the  world  and 
all  that  is  in  it.  But  not  only  so  ;  there  was 
something  yet  rarer  and  harder  that  went  before  ; 
they  were  able  to  apprehend  the  idea  as  an  idea, 
to  recognize  the  principle  as  a  principle,  to  hear 
and  accept  the  word  of  God  as  a  word  of  God, 
against  the  blindness  and  the  rejection  and  the 
contradiction,  as  well  as  to  hold  it,  to  live  by  it 
and  die  for  it,  against  all  the  excommunications 
and  excisions  of  the  world. 

It  is  the  trials  of  faith,  its  pains  and  disappoint- 
ments and  failures  and  deaths,  that  make  faith, 
and  are  the  sources  of  its  chief  virtue  and  real 
triumph. 

There  are  salvations  in  and  with  and  through, 
or  by  means  of,  the  very  extremest  trials  of  faith, 
with  which  are  not  to  be  compared  any  temporal 
deliverances  from  them. 

William  P.  Du  Bose. 

That  which  is  common  to  every  great  act  of 
faith  is  that  it  lays  hold  upon  some  word  of  God 
and  holds  it  against  the  world ;  through  it  it 
transcends  or  overcomes  the  world,  and  inherits 
a  promise  of  something  above  and  beyond  the 
world.     The  doer  of  such  an  act  makes  himself 


120  IN  TIME  OF  SICKNESS 

greater  than  the  world,  and  though  he  lose  it, 
in  doing  so  he  finds,  or  gains,  or  makes  himself. 

Ibid. 


H  (Boob  life  IReceeaari?. 

Faith  is  a  door,  not  a  goal.  It  opens  the  way 
to  a  thousand  new  difficulties  which  the  soul 
never  knew  until  it  believed.  ...  It  demands 
sacrifice  of  every  kind  as  the  condition  of  its 
growth.  .  .  .  The  fruit  of  faith  is  life,  not 
emotion,  and  it  is  unquestionably  harder  to  live 
the  spiritual  life  than  to  do  religious  works.  .  .  . 
The  life  of  faith  is  of  necessity  the  life  of  peni- 
tence, and  penitential  discipline  is  hard.  .  .  . 
Prayer  is  the  most  characteristic  exercise  of  the 
spirit  in  this  life  of  faith.  ...  At  the  outset 
prayer  demands  sacrifice.  .  .  .  This  sacrifice 
begins  in  little  things, — the  giving  up  of  time, 
the  surrendering  of  the  loved  pursuit,  that  space 
may  be  won  for  spiritual  exercise.  And,  the 
sacrifice  passes  on  and  up  to  that  complete  obla- 
tion of  the  will  which  demands  for  its  accomplish- 
ment the  whole  vigour  of  manhood,  inspired 
and  sustained  by  the  grace  of  God. 

WiLFORD    L.    ROBBINS. 


FAITH  121 

The  pure  in  heart  shall  see  the  truth,  means 
that — given  equal  data,  and  the  same  intellectual 
advantage — the  morally  better  man  will  strike  the 
truth  more  nearly,  will  be  more  happy  in  his 
guesses  and  ventures,  since  he  is  more  in  harmony 
with  reality,  more  subtly  responsive  to  its  hints. 
Not  only  the  mind  but  the  whole  soul  is  the 
organ  of  truth, 

Christ  is  not  merely  a  truth  to  be  believed, 
but  a  way  to  be  trodden,  a  life  to  be  lived.  We 
get  to  know  Christ,  as  fellow  travellers,  fellow 
workers,  fellow  soldiers,  get  to  know  one  another, 
— by  mingling  their  lives  together. 

It  is  ever  in  what  we  know  to  be  our  best  moods 
that  we  find  ourselves  most  in  sympathy  with 
Christ ;  when  we  work  more  faithfully  by  the 
light  of  conscience. 

It  is  in  what  we  know  are  our  worst  moods 
that  the  light  of  faith  begins  to  grow  dim  :  when 
we  are  disturbed,   tempted,   distracted,  out  of 

sympathy  with  our  conscience. 

George  Tyrrell. 


©bebfence. 

TOEHOLD,  to  obey  is  better  than  sacrifice 


I  Sam.  XV.  22. 


He  was  oppressed,  yet  He  humbled  Himself  and  opened 
not  His  mouth  ;  as  a  lamb  that  is  led  to  the  slaughter,  and 
as  a  sheep  that  before  his  shearers  is  dumb  ;  yea,  He  opened 
not  His  mouth.  Isa.  liii.  7. 

And  He  kneeled  dovm  and  prayed,  saying.  Father,  if 
Thou  be  willing,  remove  this  cup  from  Me  :  nevertheless, 
not  My  Will  but  Thine,  be  done.  S.  Luke  xxii.  42. 

Though  He  was  a  Son,  yet  learned  He  obedience  by  the 
things  which  He  suffered.  Heb.  v.  8. 

For  as  through  the  one  man's  disobedience  the  many 
were  made  sinners,  even  so  through  the  obedience  of  the 
One,  shall  the  many  be  made  righteous.  Rom.  v.  19. 

He  humbled  Himself,  becoming  obedient  even  unto 
death,  yea,  the  death  of  the  Cross.  Phil.  ii.  8. 


Almighty  and  everlasting  God,  Who,  of  Thy  tender 
love  towards  mankind,  hast  sent  Thy  Son,  our  Saviour 
Jesus  Christ,  to  take  upon  Him  our  tlesh,  and  to 
suffer  death  upon  the  Cross,  that  all  mankind  should 
follow  the  example  of  His  great  humility ;  Mercifully 
grant,  that  we  may  both  follow  the  example  of  His 
patience,  and  also  be  made  partakers  of  His  resurrec- 

122 


OBEDIENCE  123 

tion :     through    the    same    Jesus    Christ    our   Lord. 
— Collect  jor  the  Sunday  bejore  Easter. 

Almighty  God,  Who  madest  Thy  blessed  Son  to  be 
circumcised,  and  obedient  to  the  law  for  man  :  grant 
us  the  true  Circumcision  of  the  Spirit :  that,  our 
hearts,  and  all  our  members,  being  mortified  from  all 
worldly  and  carnal  lusts,  we  may  in  all  things  obey 
Thy  blessed  will :  through  the  same  Thy  Son  Jesus 
Christ  our  Lord. — Collect  Jor  the  Circumcision, 

O  Almighty  and  most  merciful  God,  of  Thy  bountiful 
goodness  keep  us,  we  beseech  Thee,  from  all  things 
that  may  hurt  us  :  that  we,  being  ready  both  in  body 
and  soul,  may  cheerfully  accomplish  those  things  that 
Thou  wouldest  have  done  :  through  Jesus  Christ  our 
Lord. — Collect  Jor  the  20th  Sunday  ajter  Trinity. 


ITbe  ©bebience  of  Cbrfet 

The  life  of  Christ  is  characterized  by  the 
homage  of  perfect  obedience,  .  .  .  consummate 
obedience,  as  a  perfect  manifestation,  and  offering 
of  holiness  :  holiness  in  terms  of  human  condition 
and  character  ;  yet  a  perfectly  adequate  holiness  ; 
a  response  worthy  of  the  holiness  of  God.  .  .  . 
It  is  a  life  of  unreserved,  unremitting,  absolute 
and  clearly  conscious,  dependence.  The  centre 
of  His  life  is  never  in  Himself.  He  is  always, 
explicitly,  the  manifestation,  the  reflection,  the 
obedient  Son  and  Servant,  of  another.  There 
is  no  purpose  of  self  ;  no  element  of  self-will ; 
no  possibility,  even  for  a  moment,  of  the  imagina- 
tion of  separateness ;  no  such  thing,  we  may  even 


124  IN  TIME  OF  SICKNESS 

say,  as  a  consciousness  alone  and  apart.  He  is 
the  representative  agent  of  another,  the  Son 
of  the  Father,  the  Image  of  God.  This  is  the 
entire  description  of  His  life  and  consciousness. 
"  I  am  not  alone,  but  I  and  the  Father  that  sent 
Me."  ...     "  I  and  the  Father  are  One." 

R.    C.    MOBERLY. 


We  may  contemplate  Christ's  character  as 
the  type  of  filial  obedience, — of  a  complete 
harmony  between  human  will  and  the  law  of 
holiness.  .  .  .  Obedience,  based  on  absolute 
trust  in  the  character  and  purpose  of  God  ;  an 
"  obedience  of  faith,"  yet  in  its  essence  the 
obedience  not  of  a  servant  but  of  a  son  ;  an 
obedience  that  refuses  nothing,  shrinks  from 
nothing,  questions  nothing  that  presents  itself 
as  Divine  requirement  :  such  is  seen  to  be  the 
law  of  Christ's  Life,  the  law  to  Him  of  action 
and  of  endurance,  the  rule  of  prayer,  the  prin- 
ciple of  sacrifice,  the  motive  of  service,  the  well- 
spring  of  thanksgiving  and  joy. 

If  the  entire  completeness  of  this  obedience 
becomes  One  Who  wears  "  the  form  of  a  ser- 
vant," the  willingness  of  it  marks  the  glad  service 
of  a  Son.  And  because  the  fulfilment  by  Jesus 
of  the  Father's  will  is  spontaneous,  free,  whole- 


OBEDIENCE  125 

hearted,  sacrificial,  it  wins  acceptance  as  the 
offering  of  One  "  well  pleasing  "  and  "  beloved." 
Perfected  by  submission  to  suffering  and  death, 
the  obedience  of  Jesus  is  stamped  with  the  token 
of  Divine  satisfaction  by  His  rising  from  the 
dead. 

R.  L.  Ottley. 


Christ's  call  was  to  a  sterner  mortification  or 
austerity  than  men  had  yet  learnt — that  mortifi- 
cation which  is  the  essential  condition  of  all 
strenuous  mental  or  moral  development ;  of 
the  life  of  perfect  reason  ;  of  the  subjection  of 
the  psychic  will  to  the  spiritual  and  Divine.  It 
was  not  the  mortification  of  the  oriental  ascetic, 
sought  directly  for  its  own  sake,  dictated  by  a 
disbelief  in  nature  and  in  life,  but  such  as  was 
incidental  to,  and  inseparable  from,  the  quest 
of  the  highest,  widest  and  fullest  life.  "  He  was 
obedient  unto  death,  even  the  death  of  the 
Cross" — obedience,  conformity  to  the  Divine 
Will,  was  the  end  ;  the  Cross  was  but  the  inevit- 
able incident  :  Death  for  Life's  sake,  not  Death 
for  Death's  sake. 

George  Tyrrell. 


126  IN  TIME  OF  SICKNESS 

IReaifinatlon^ 

There  should  be  no  greater  comfort  to  Christian 
persons  than  to  be  made  like  unto  Christ,  by 
suffering  patiently  adversities,  troubles,  and  sick- 
nesses. For  He  Himself  went  not  up  to  joy,  but 
first  He  suffered  pain  ;  He  entered  not  into  His 
glory  before  He  was  crucified.  So  truly  our 
way  to  eternal  joy  is  to  suffer  here  with  Christ. 
Visitation  of  the  Sick,  Book  of  Common  Prayer. 


God  sets  the  soul  long,  weary,  impossible  tasks, 

yet  is  satisfied  by  the  first  sincere  proof  that 

obedience  is  intended,  and    takes  the  burthen 

away  forthwith. 

Coventry  Patmore. 

O  might  it  please  God  that  we  should  little 
regard  the  course  of  the  way  we  tread,  and  have 
our  eyes  fixed  on  Him  Who  conducts  us,  and  on 
the  blessed  country  to  which  it  leads  !  What 
should  it  matter  to  us  whether  it  is  by  the  desert 
or  by  the  meadows  we  go,  if  God  is  with  us 
and  we  go  into  Paradise  .? 

S.  Francis  de  Sales. 

Wish  not,  dear  friends,  my  pain  away — 
Wish  me  a  wise  and  thankful  heart. 


OBEDIENCE  127 

With  God,  in  all  my  griefs,  to  stay, 

Nor  from  His  loved  correction  start. 

#  #  *  *  * 

Were  it  not  better  to  lie  still. 

Let  Him  strike  home,  and  bless  the  rod. 

Never  so  safe  as  when  our  will 

Yields,  undiscerned  by  all  but  God. 

John  Keble. 

"  Resignation  is  too  often  conceived  to  be 
merely  a  submission,  not  unattended  with  com- 
plaint, to  what  we  have  no  power  to  avoid.  .  .  . 
Your  full  triumph  as  far  as  that  particular  occasion 
of  duty  is  concerned  will  be  to  find  that  you 
not  merely  repress  inward  tendencies  to  murmur 
— but  that  you  would  not  if  you  could  alter  what 
in  any  matter  God  has  plainly  willed.  .  .  . 
Here  is  the  great  work  of  religion  ;  here  is  the 
path  through  which  sanctity  is  attained,  the 
highest  sanctity  ;  and  yet  it  is  a  path  evidently 
to  be  traced  in  the  course  of  our  daily  duties." 
W.  E.  Gladstone  {John  Morley). 


We  need  only  obey.  There  is  guidance  for 
each  of  us,  and  by  lowly  listening,  we  shall  hear 
the  right  word. 

Emeiison, 


128  IN  TIME  OF  SICKNESS 

The  years  teach  much  which  the  days  never 

know. 

1^  Ibid. 

"  Let  no  man  think  that  sudden,  in  a  minute, 
All  is  accomplished,  and  the  work  is  done  : 
Though  with  thine  earliest  dawn  thou  should'st  begin  it, 
Scarce  were  it  ended  with  thy  setting  sun." 

Frederick  Myers. 


The  obedient  temper  has  a  deep  importance 
as  being  the  counter  agent  of  all  insubordination. 
And  insubordination  is  very  prominent  among 
our  modern  evils.  There  is,  of  course,  a  noble 
discontent  with  things  as  they  are  ;  which  is 
the  necessary  condition  of  our  Christian  desire 
to  right  social  wrong  ;  discontent,  that  is  to 
say,  with  all  the  evil  that  is  in  the  world.  But 
this  is  totally  different  from  the  discontented 
temper  which  issues  in  insubordination ;  the 
temper  that  resents  restraint.  Against  this  the 
obedient  temper  is  our  safeguard  ;  the  temper 
which  recognizes  the  laws  of  nature  as  expressing 
the  will  of  God  :  .  .  .  the  temper  which  still 
more  immediately  hears  and  obeys  God's  voice 
in  the  magisterial  command  of  conscience  .  .  . 
which  bears  in  mind  that  ..."  the  powers 
that  be  are  ordained  of  God,"  and  is  therefore 


OBEDIENCE  129 

"  subject   to   every   ordinance   of   man   for   the 

Lord's  sake." 

J.  R.  Illingworth. 

Endurance  is  the  crowning  quaHty, 

And  Patience  all  the  passion  of  great  hearts  ! 

J.  R.  Lowell. 

O  Thou  God  of  old, 
Grant  me  some  smaller  grace  than  comes  to  these  ! 
But  so  much  Patience  as  a  blade  of  grass 
Grows  by,  contented  through  the  heat  and  cold. 

E.  B.  Browning. 

We  must  cultivate  the  practice  of  Patience, 
by  which  I  mean  the  quiet  endurance  of  the 
crosses,  troubles,  sorrows  and  vexations,  which 
thwart  or  sadden  our  life.  By  accepting  these 
with  a  good  grace  we  shall  be  doing  much  to 
subdue  the  arrogant  self-assertion  which  regards 
every  cross  or  trial  as  an  insult  to  our  dignity,  or 
an  obstacle  to  our  success.  ...  It  is  wisest 
to  be  content  to  endure  the  crosses  which  meet 
us  in  the  ordinary  way,  and  which  are  quite 
sufficient  for  our  purpose.  .  .  .  The  Patience 
which  is  quiet,  stedfast  and  unostentatious, 
which  serenely  meets  each  trouble  as  it  comes, 
accepting  each  as  a  reminder  that  God's  strength 

A.G.  K 


130  IN  TIME  OF  SICKNESS 

is  made  perfect  in  weakness,  and  that  weakness 

is  our  natural  and  appropriate  condition, — such 

Patience  is  a  very  shrewd  attack  on  the  power 

of  Pride. 

Arthur  Chandler. 

A  cross  wholly  inflicted  by  God,  and  fully 
accepted  without  any  unrestful  hesitation,  is  full 
of  peace  as  well  as  of  pain.  On  the  contrary,  a 
cross  not  fully  and  simply  accepted,  but  even 
slightly  resisted  by  the  love  of  self,  is  doubled : 
it  is  still  more  a  cross,  thanks  to  that  futile  resist- 
ance, than  through  the  pain  it  necessarily  entails. 

Fenelon. 

When  hearts  are  full  of  innermost  distress, 

And  we  are  doomed  to  stand  inactive  by, 

Watching  the  soul's  or  body's  agony, 

Which  human  effort  helps  not  to  make  less — 

Then  like  a  cup  capacious  to  contain 

The  overflowings  of  the  heart  is  prayer  ; 

The  longing  of  the  soul  is  satisfied, 

The  keenest  darts  of  anguish  blunted  are  : 

And  though  we  cannot  cease  to  yearn  or  grieve, 

We  yet  have  learned  in  patience  to  abide. 

R.  C.  Trench. 

Obedience,  though  it  niay  look  at  first  sight 
like  a  mere  abandonment  of  our  will,  is  for  that 


OBEDIENCE  131 

very  reason  capable  of  becoming  the  very  highest 
act  of  will.     For — 

"  Our  wills  are  ours  to  make  them  Thine." 

To  submit  our  will  to  God's  will,  and  so  to  make 
His  will  our  own,  is  the  highest  form  of  self- 
determination,  and  therefore  the  greatest  step 
towards  the  formation  of  a  character  that  is 
truly  free  ;  free,  that  is,  not  from  the  law,  but 
by  the  law, — the  kw  which  no  longer  appears 
as  an  alien  restraint,  because  it  is  incorporated 
with  the  self.  Hence  the  ethical  and  spiritual 
value  of  obedience ;  it  is  the  road,  and  the 
necessary  and  only  road  to  freedom. 

J.  R.  Illingworth. 

I  have  this  bidding  to  perform  ;  but  mind 
And  body,  all  of  me,  though  made  and  meant 
For  that  sole  service,  must  consult,  concert 
With  my  own  self  and  nobody  beside. 
How  to  effect  the  same  :  God  helps  not  else. 
'Tis  I,  who  with  my  stock  of  craft  and  strength. 
Choose  the  director  cut  across  the  hedge, 
Or  keep  the  foot  track  that  respects  a  crop, 
Lie  down  and  rest,  rise  up  and  run, — ^live  spare. 
Feed  free, — all  that's  my  business  :  but  arrive. 
Deliver  message,  bring  the  answer  back. 
And  make  my  bow,  I  must  :  then  God  will  speak. 
Praise  me,  or  haply  blame,  as  service  proves. 

R.  Browning, 


132  IN   TIME  OF  SICKNESS 

Ifortltube. 

The  parts  of  Fortitude  are  confidence,  patience, 
magnanimity,  magnificence,  constancy  and  per- 
severance. 

Confidence  is  the  assured  hope  of  bringing 
what  we  undertake  to  a  successful  end. 

Patience  .  .  .  resists  perturbation,  grief  and 
sadness,  and  victoriously  endures  molestation. 

Magnanimity  is  that  greatness  of  soul  which 
rises  above  difficulties  and  dangers. 

Magnificence  is  that  largeness  of  soul  which 
projects  and  carries  out  great  works  from  high 
and  noble  motives.  Constancy  stands  with 
unchangeable  firmness  to  its  resolutions,  and  shuns 
the  levity  that  flits  in  restless  moods  from  one 
thing  to  another. 

Perseverance  is  the  resolute  continuance  in 
good  once  begun,  despite  of  all  obstacles  and 
discouragements. 

Archbishop  Ullathorne. 

S.  Augustine  defines  fortitude  as  "  the  firmness 
of  the  soul  amidst  the  troublesome  things  of 
time,"  and  more  especially  as  "  the  love  of  endur- 
ing all  things  in  peace  for  God's  sake."  And 
elsewhere  he  calls  it  "  an  affection  of  the  soul 
whereby  we  despise  whatever  inconveniences  or 


OBEDIENCE  133 

injuries  we  may  suffer,  that  are  placed  beyond 
our  power  to  remedy." 

In  Romans  viii.  35-39,  we  are  taught  that 
fortitude  is  the  strength  of  charity  :  that  it 
derives  its  ardent  force  from  adhering  to  God 
through  Christ  :  that  it  is  mighty  above  all 
created  powers  to  repel  the  adversaries  of  the 
soul,  be  they  earthly  or  unearthly,  come  they 
with  fear  or  enticement  :  and  that  this  fortitude 
of  charity  overcomes  every  temptation,  trial 
and  suffering,  by  still  adhering  with  constancy 
to  God.  Ibid. 

Though  you  should  neglect  one  or  more  of 
the  many  shrines  in  your  heart,  never  be  neglectful 
of  the  shrine  of  fortitude  :  offer  there  frequent 
worship,  exalt  fortitude  among  the  highest  objects 
of  your  prayers.  To  bear  pain  well  is  to  be  not 
only  man  but  also  god.  All  through  our  lives 
fortitude  remains  above  the  possibility  of  explana- 
tion, a  divine  act,  a  downright  interposition  of 
Providence  to  help  us  to  be  good.  It  so  rules 
and  sways  the  admiration  of  mankind  that  Chris- 
tianity was  founded  and  built  on  the  Passion  :  and 
the  line  is  unbroken  down  from  that  example 
to  the  least  of  us  bearing  well  the  least  moment 
of  pain.  .  .  . 


134  ^A'   ^^^^  OF  SICKNESS 

Fortitude  illumines  pain  like  sunshine,  or  like 
a  procession  through  dull  streets  :  it  writes 
Victory  across  the  very  page  where  Failure  was 
written  :  and  the  best  of  it  is  that  no  occasion 
is  too  trivial  for  its  exercise,  no  point  of  our  lives 

too  low  to  catch  its  light. 

Stephen  Paget. 

Fortitude  is  of  two  kinds  :  there  is  an  active 
fortitude  and  a  passive  fortitude.  .  .  .  The 
perfection  of  fortitude  is  in  its  passive  character. 
.  .  .  The  courage  which  shows  itself  in  action 
may  be  little  more  than  the  energies  of  nature, 
and  nature  has  a  certain  satisfaction  in  putting 
out  its  latent  power  ;  but  the  fortitude  which 
is  shown  in  suffering  is,  I  may  say,  contrary  to 
nature.  All  our  nature  rises  against  it,  and  it 
demands  an  energy  of  will,  of  self-constraint, 
of  self-subjection,  which  is  altogether  not  of 
nature  but  of  grace.  .  .  .  Active  fortitude  is 
one  of  the  four  cardinal  virtues,  .  .  .  but  the 
fortitude  of  which  we  are  speaking  is  a  gift  of 

the  Holy  Ghost. 

Cardinal  Manning. 

There  are  critical  moments  when  fortitude 
demands  that  we  become  stern  and  severe  with 


OBEDIENCE  135 

ourselves,  but  never  with  others,  unless  to  check 
some  great  evil.  But  where  this  virtue  is  habitual, 
and  in  good  exercise,  it  is  gentle,  free  and  cheer- 
ful. As  it  is  the  gift  of  the  H0I7  Ghost,  and 
works  with  the  sweet  flame  of  charity,  it  sweetens 
the  soul,  and  by  its  resistance  to  the  vices  that 
produce  fear,  hardness  and  disconsolation,  true 
Christian  fortitude  makes  the  soul  peaceful, 
pleasant  and  cheerful.  .  .  . 

As  a  gift  of  the  Holy  Ghost  fortitude  is  a  gratui- 
tous and  abounding  grace,  given  to  those  who 
seek  perfection  of  life  through  the  divine  counsels. 
...  It  is  the  strength  of  God's  grace  working 
through  the  co-operation  of  the  will  in  the  weak- 
ness of  the  creature  .  .  .  the  surrender  of  oneself 
to  God  amidst  accepted  afflictions,  that,  attached 
to  the  Cross  of  Christ,  they  may  perfect  our  soul. 

Archbishop  Ullathorne. 


Count  each  affliction,  whether  light  or  grave, 
God's  messenger  sent  down  to  thee  :  do  thou 
With  courtesy  receive  him  ;  rise  and  bow. 
And,  ere  his  shadow  pass  thy  threshold,  crave 
Permission  first  his  heavenly  feet  to  lave. 
Then  lay  before  him  all  thou  hast  ;  allow 
No  cloud  of  passion  to  usurp  thy  brow. 
Or  mar  thy  hospitality ;  no  wave 
Of  mortal  tumult  to  obliterate 


136  IN  TIME  OF  SICKNESS 

The  souPs  marmoreal  calmness  :  grief  should  be 
Like  joy,  majestic,  equable,  sedate, 
Confirming,  cleansing,  raising,  making  free  ; 
Strong  to  consume  small  troubles,  to  commend 
Great  thoughts,  grave  thoughts,  thoughts  lasting  to  the 
end. 

Aubrey  de  Vere. 

Botticelli's  "  Fortitude  " 

What  is  chiefly  notable  in  her  is — that  you 
would  not,  if  you  had  to  guess  who  she  was,  take 
her  for  Fortitude  at  all.  Everybody  else's  For- 
titudes announce  themselves  clearly  and  proudly. 
They  have  tower-like  shields  and  lion-like  helmets, 
and  stand  firm  astride  on  their  legs,  and  are  con- 
fidently ready  for  all  comers. 

But  Botticelli's  Fortitude  is  no  match,  it  may 
be,  for  any  that  are  coming.  Worn,  somewhat  ; 
and  not  a  little  weary,  instead  of  standing  ready 
for  all  comers,  she  is  sitting,  apparently  in  reverie, 
her  fingers  playing  restlessly  and  idly — nay,  I 
think,  even  nervously — about  the  hilt  of  her 
sword. 

For  her  battle  is  not  to  begin  to-day  ;  nor 
did  it  begin  yesterday.  Many  a  morn  and  eve 
have  passed  since  it  began — and  now — is  this 
to  be  the  ending  day  of  it  ?  And  if  this — by 
what  manner  of  end  ? 


OBEDIENCE  137 

That  is  what  Sandro's  Fortitude  is  thinking, 

and   the   playing   fingers   about   the   sword-hilt 

would  fain  let  it  fall,  if  it  might  be  ;    and   yet, 

how   swiftly   and   gladly   will   they   close   on   it 

when  the  far-off  trumpet  blows,  which  she  will 

hear  through  all  her  reverie  ! 

John  Ruskin. 

Fortitude  may  be  exercised  chiefly  in  doing 
Very  little  things,  whose  whole  value  lies  in  this, 
that  if  one  did  not  hope  in  God,  one  would  not 
do  them  ;  in  secretly  dispelling  moods  which  one 
would  like  to  show  ;  in  saying  nothing  about  one's 
lesser  troubles  and  vexations ;  in  seeing  whether 
it  may  not  be  best  to  bear  a  burden  before  one 
tries  to  see  whether  one  can  shift  it ;  in  refusing 
for  oneself  excuses  which  one  would  not  refuse 
for  others.  These,  anyhow,  are  ways  in  which 
a  man  may  every  day  be  strengthening  himself  in 
the  discipline  of  Fortitude,  and  then,  if  greater 
things  are  asked  of  him,  he  is  not  very  likely  to 
draw  back  from  them.  And  while  he  waits  the 
asking  of  these  greater  things,  he  may  be  gaining 
from  the  love  of  God  a  hidden  strength  and 
glory  such  as  he  himself  would  least  of  all 
expect ;  he  may  be  growing  in  the  patience  and 
perseverance  of  the  Saints. 

Francis  Paget. 


138  IN  TIME  OF  SICKNESS 

The  greatest  moral  strength  of  which  the  soul 
is  capable,  comes  of  the  Christian  grace  and 
gift  of  fortitude,  of  which  patience  is  a  potential 
part.  .  .  .  Patience  is  mostly  concerned  in 
overcoming  the  restlessness  of  nature,  in  enduring 
adversities,  in  resisting  temptations,  and  in 
subduing  or  keeping  away  impatience,  anger,  or 
sadness.  Fortitude  is  a  braver  and  stronger  virtue, 
is  more  deeply  woven  into  the  constitution  of 
the  soul,  and  is  concerned  with  difficult  action 
as  well  as  with  difficult  endurance.  Fortitude  is 
required  to  face  danger  bravely,  to  undertake 
great  works  beset  with  difficulties,  or  to  undergo 
martyrdom,  or  the  equivalent  of  martyrdom.  .  .  . 
Fortitude  is  a  virtue  more  deeply  seated  in 
the  soul,  is  more  calm  in  its  operations,  and  is 
less  the  subject  of  consciousness  than  patience. 
We  are  less  conscious  of  fortitude  because  it  is 
a  force  that  works  with  greater  ease ;  we  are  more 
conscious  of  patience  because  it  is  exercised 
with  greater  effort,  and  is  felt  by  the  greater 
resistance  which  it  encounters  from  irritability, 
impatience,  or  sadness.  The  whole  man  moves 
together  in  fortitude,  but  in  patience  only  a 
portion  of  the  faculties  are  brought  into  exercise 
at  one  time. 

Archbishop  Ullathorne. 


Part  313131 

fruits  of  Suffetino 

Ssmpatbg— aouraflc— t)ope-Sos-Morft 


Sigmpatbig. 


JN  all  their  affliction  He  was  afflicted,  and  the  angel  of 

His  Presence  saved  them  :  in  His  love  and  in  His 

pity  He  redeemed  them,  and  He  hare  them  and  carried  them 

all  the  days  of  old.  Isa.  Ixiii.  9. 

When  even  was  come,  they  brought  unto  Him  many 
possessed  with  devils  :  and  He  cast  out  the  spirits  with 
a  word,  and  healed  all  that  were  sick :  that  it  might  be 
fulfilled  which  was  spoken  by  Isaiah  the  prophet,  say- 
ing, Himself  took  our  infirmities,  and  bare  our  diseases. 

S.  Matt.  viii.  16-18. 

For  we  have  not  a  High  Priest  that  cannot  be  touched 
with  the  feeling  of  our  infirmities ;  but  one  that  hath  been 
in  all  points  tempted  like  as  we  are,  yet  without  sin. 

Heb.  iv.  15. 

They  helped  every  one  his  neighbour ;  and  every  one 
said  to  his  brother,  Be  of  good  courage.  Isa.  xli.  6. 

Rejoice  with  them  that  rejoice  ;  weep  with  them  that 
weep.  Rom.  xii.  15. 

Blessed  Lord,  Who  hast  given  us  a  new  command- 
ment that  we  should  love  one  another,  and  hast  taught 
us  that  where  envy  and  strife  is,  there  is  confusion  and 
every  evil  work,  give  us  grace  to  be  kindly  disposed 
towards  all  men,  and  never  to  be  the  cause  of  division 
among  any  of  Thy  people.  Put  away  from  us  all 
bitterness,  and  wrath,  and  anger,  and  evil  speaking, 
with  all  malice  :  and   grant  that  in  honour  preferring 

141 


142  FRUITS  OF  SUFFERING 

others,  we  may  walk  in  love,  even  as  Thou,  Lord, 
loved 'st  us,  and  gavest  Thyself  to  die  for  our  sins. — 
Book  oj  Private  Prayer. 

O  Lord,  make  us  to  love  Thee,  and  each  other  in 
Thee,  and  to  meet  before  Thee  to  dwell  in  Thine 
everlasting  love. — E.  B.  Pusey. 

O  God,  Who  hast  taught  us  to  keep  all  Thy  heavenly 
Commandments  by  loving  Thee  and  our  neighbour ; 
grant  us  the  spirit  of  peace  and  grace,  that  we  may 
be  both  devoted  to  Thee  with  our  whole  heart,  and 
united  to  each  other  with  a  pure  will ;  though  Jesus 
Christ  our  Lord. — Leonine  Sacramentary,  a.d.  460. 


80  rcvealeJ)  in  Cbriat  anb  manifeeteb  to 
an  fiDen, 

It  was  the  need  of  a  divine  assurance  that 
there  is  a  heart  of  sympathy  at  the  root  of  things, 
which  Christ  came  to  satisfy.  .  .  .  He  not  only 
declared  the  Divine  sympathy,  He  entered  the 
human  struggle.  It  was  not  enough  that  God 
should  declare  the  divine  sympathy  in  a  word  : 
He  chose  also  to  declare  it  in  a  Life.  There 
can  be  no  doubt  of  a  sympathy  which  issues 
in  self-sacrifice  :  and  we  see  the  Heart  of  God 
in  the  Cross  of  Jesus  Christ.  .  .  .  He  Who 
ordained  the  hard  law  of  the  Cross,  Himself 
submitted  to  it,  to  prove  by  His  self-sacrifice  that 
it  came  from  a  will  of  love  :  and  He  transformed 
it  by  bidding  us  not  only  to  take  it,  but  take  it 
after  Him.     It  is  through  the  fellowship  of  the 


SYMPATHY  143 

Cross  that  He  comes  most  closely  to  us.  .  .  . 
When  we  see  and  greet  Him  there,  supreme  and 
calm,  He  gives  us  His  own  supremacy  and  calm- 
ness. We  conquer  our  crosses  by  bearing  them 
with  Him. 

Archbishop  Lang. 

Our  widespread  sensitiveness  to  suffering  .  .  . 
indicates  a  drawing  closer  together  of  the  strands 
of  human  experience,  and  as  such  is  a  good  and 
not  an  evil.  ...  By  a  great  variety  of  causes, 
there  has  taken  place  a  quickening  of  the  imagina- 
tive sympathy,  which  is  among  one  of  the  most 
remarkable  things  of  modern  times.  We  are 
nearer  to  each  other,  even  those  of  us  who  are 
careless  and  irresponsible  ;  our  interests  are  less 
abstract,  our  fellowship  is  more  inquisitive,  our 
union  more  detailed  and  minute.  ...  It  would 
seem  as  though  sympathy,  once  called  into  being, 
develops  more  rapidly  than  any  other  power 
of  heart  or  mind.  Once  exercised,  it  finds  a 
thousand  doors  open  to  its  perception,  and  not 
content  with  its  own  species,  it  takes  up  the 
burden  of  others,  till  it  comes  at  length  with  a 
loud  and  desolate  cry  to  the  gates  of  life  itself. 

T.  J.  Hardy. 


144  FRUITS  OF  SUFFERING 

If  I  love  the  brother-man  whom  I  see  as  I 
would  love  God  Whom  the  pure  shall  see,  what 
must  I  strive  to  do  in  the  bonds  of  such  a  love  ? 
The  question  seeks  me,  presses  itself,  as  brother 
after  brother  calls  ;  and  the  dark  mass  of  suffering, 
ignorant,  sinful  brother-life  shuts  out  my  sun. 
I  cannot  say,  "  They  are  in  the  hands  of  God," 
and  fold  my  own  ;  my  hands  have  done  and  still 
may  do  what  is  impossible  for  Him  without  my 
hands  ;  and  for  the  deeds  of  my  hands  done 
and  undone  I  stand  responsible.  I  have  played 
my  part  in  the  making  and  the  keeping  of  that 
dark  mass,  and  I  play  it  still.   .   .   . 

It  is  a  terrible  question  ;  God  is  keeper  of  us 
all  and  keeper  of  each  ;  but  Cain  must  not  seek 
there  for  his  excuse.  .  .  .  The  nearest  and 
the  dearest  call  in  vain  sometimes.  So  I  think 
prudence  would  have  me  set  myself  to  learn  some 
catechism  of  love,  that  when  calls  come  and  I 
hear  them  I  may  not  have  to  sit  down  and  keep 
my  brother  waiting  while  I  study  the  method 

of  response. 

J  Modern  Mystic's  Way. 

ITbe  Beam  anb  tbe  flDote. 

You  will  find  it  less  easy  to  uproot  faults  than 
to  choke  them  by  gaining  virtues,     Do  not  think 


SYMPATHY  145 

of  your  faults,  still  less  of  others'  faults.  In  every 
person  who  comes  near  you  look  for  what  is  good 
and  strong  ;  honour  that ;  rejoice  in  it ;  and 
as  you  can,  try  to  imitate  it ;  and  your  faults 
will  drop  off  like  dead  leaves,  when  their  time 
comes. 

J.    RUSKIN. 

Be  noble,  and  the  nobleness  that  lies 
In  other  men,  sleeping,  but  never  dead, 
Will  rise  in  majesty  to  meet  thine  own  ; 
Then  shalt  thou  see  it  gleam  in  many  eyes, 
Then  will  pure  light  about  thy  way  be  shed. 

J.  R.  Lowell. 

As  we  are,  so  do  we  see  and  comprehend  :  and 
this  is  revelation.  "  Where  participation  ends, 
sympathy  ends  ;  and  where  sympathy  ends,  all 
understanding  ends." 

H.  W.  Longfellow. 


Never  let  it  be  forgotten  that  there  is  scarcely 
a  single  moral  action  of  a  single  man  of  which 
other  men  can  have  such  a  knowledge,  in  its 
ultimate  grounds,  its  surrounding  incidents, 
and  the  real  determining  causes  of  its  merits, 

A.G.  Xi 


146  FRUITS  OF  SUFFERING 

as   to  warrant   their   pronouncing   a   conclusive 
judgment  upon  it. 

W.  E.  Gladstone  {John  Morley), 

There  is  an  idea  abroad  among  moral  people 
that  they  should  make  their  neighbours  good. 
One  person  I  have  to  make  good  :  myself.  But 
my  duty  to  my  neighbour  is  much  more  nearly 
expressed  by  saying  that  I  have  to  make  him 
happy — if  I  may. 

Robert  Louis  Stevenson. 


The  temper  which  our  Lord  approves  is  the 
humility  which  makes  the  best  of  others,  and  is 
severe  with  itself.  You,  He  seems  to  say,  have 
every  opportunity  to  know  your  own  failings  ; 
therefore  look  stringently  to  yourself,  the  mote, 
or  the  beam,  that  is  in  thine  own  eye.  That 
bulks  big  enough  in  your  own  vision.  To  con- 
sider it  prevents  you  from  over-estimating  your- 
self, and  humbles  you  in  your  own  sight.  Let 
it  also  take  out  of  your  heart  and  off  your  lips 
all  the  readiness  to  criticize  and  condemn  other 
people. 

Charles  Gore. 


SYMPATHY  147 


Jnepirincj  power  of  S^mpatbij* 

The  actual  conditions  of  our  life  being  as  they 
are,  and  the  capacity  for  suffering  so  large  a 
principle  in  things — since  the  only  principle 
perhaps,  to  which  we  may  always  safely  trust 
is  a  ready  sympathy  with  the  pain  one  actually 
sees — it  follows  that  the  practical  and  effective 
difference  between  men  will  lie  in  their  power 
of  insight  into  those  conditions,  their  power  of 
sympathy.  The  future  will  be  with  those  who 
have  most  of  it ;  while  for  the  present,  as  I 
persuade  myself,  those  who  have  much  of  it, 
have  something  to  hold  by  even  in  the  dissolution 
of  a  world,  or  in  that  dissolution  of  self  which 
is  for  every  one  no  less  than  the  dissolution  of 
the  world  it  represents  for  him.  .  .  . 

In  the  mere  clinging  of  human  creatures  to 
to  each  other,  nay !  in  one's  own  solitary  self- 
pity,  amid  the  effects  even  of  what  might  appear 
irredeemable  loss,  I  seem  to  touch  the  eternal. 
Something  in  that  pitiful  contact,  something  new 
and  true,  fact  or  apprehension  of  fact,  is  educed, 
which,  on  a  review  of  all  the  perplexities  of  life, 
satisfies  our  moral  sense,  and  removes  that  appear- 
ance of  unkindness  in  the  soul  of  things  themselves, 


148  FRUITS  OF  SUFFERING 

and  assures  us  that  not  everything  has  been  in 

vain. 

Walter  Pater. 

The  heart,  stirred  with  emotion,  unfelt  before, 

becomes  conscious  of  a  new  revelation  of  itself 

and  its  capacities,  of  life,  and  its  meaning.     The 

stimulus  of  seeing  another  heart  open  before  it 

fills  it  with  feelings  far  beyond  the  power  of 

expression.     The  deep  is  broken  up,  and  new 

worlds  come  into  sight.     Treasure  such  visions, 

they  will  be  useful  to  you.     None  of  them  is  a 

mere  dream — they  are  eternally  true.     All  that 

we  have  ever  seen  is  real  :   alas  !   that  we  do  not 

see  it  always. 

Mandell  Creighton. 

The  best  help  is  not  to  bear  the  troubles 
of  others  for  them  but  to  inspire  them  with 
courage  and  energy  to  bear  their  burdens  for 
themselves,  and  meet  the  difhculties  of  life 
bravely. 


Lord  Avebury. 


Sympathy. 


There  should  be  no  despair  for  you 
While  nightly  stars  are  burning, 

While  evening  pours  its  silent  dew, 
And  sunshine  gilds  the  morning. 


SYMPATHY  149 

There  should  be  no  despair — though  tears 

May  flow  down  like  a  river  : 
Are  not  the  best  beloved  of  years 

Around  your  heart  for  ever  ? 

They  weep,  you  weep,  it  must  be  so  ; 

Winds  sigh  as  you  are  sighing, 
And  winter  sheds  its  grief  in  snow 

Where  Autumn's  leaves  are  lying  : 
Yet,  these  revive,  and  from  their  fate 

Your  fate  cannot  be  parted  : 
Then,  journey  on,  if  not  elate. 

Still  never  broken-hearted  ! 

Emily  Bronte. 


The  Christian  who  sees  in  the  beauty  of  the 
world  ...  a  direct  and  intentional  gift  of  the 
Creator  to  the  child  of  His  creation,  is  thereby 
brought  into  a  far  more  definite  and  personal 
relation  to  God.  Every  sunset  on  a  mountain, 
every  moonrise  on  a  lake,  every  nightly  revelation 
of  the  stars ;  .  .  .  the  sight,  the  sound,  the  scent 
of  rill  or  waterfall  or  sea  may  serve  ...  to 
intensify  his  spiritual  life.  .  .  .  And  what  is 
true  of  the  aspect  of  nature,  is  equally  true  of 
the  love  made  manifest  through  human  hearts. 
All  the  tender  self-sacrifice  of  parents ;  all  the 
joy  of  those  who  take  sweet  counsel  together 


150  FRUITS  OF  SUFFERING 

and  walk  in  the  house  of  God  as  friends  ;  all 
the  loyalty  of  lovers,  lost  in  each  other's  life  ; 
all  the  sympathy  of  strangers  who  pour  oil  and 
wine  into  our  wounds,  owe  their  possibility  to 
God's  creative  will. 

J.  R.  Illingworth. 


3nt)(vibualit^.    (Bift  of  Self  IReceaaar^ 

It  is  just  because  God  is  so  essentially  other 
than  ourselves  that  we  can  securely  *'  abide 
under  the  shadow  of  the  Almighty  "  with — 

"  The  submission  of  man's  nothing  perfect  to  God's  all 
complete, 
As  by  each  new  obeisance  in  spirit  I  climb  to  his  feet." 

(Browning.) 

Even  in  our  own  human  relationships  the  element 
of  "  otherness  "  is  essential.  It  is  because  my 
friend  is  other  than  myself,  and  as  such  independ- 
ent of  my  personal  sin  or  sorrow,  that  I  can  turn 
to  him  in  time  of  trouble  to  support  my  weakness 
by  his  strength.  It  is  because  those  who  love 
me  are  other  than  myself,  better,  or  greater,  or 
holier,  or  lovelier,  that  I  feel  my  whole  being 
enriched  and  expanded  by  the  gift  of  their  love. 
And  all  true  union  among  men  is  attained,  not 


SYMPATHY  151 

by  the  obliteration,  but  by  the  emphasis  of  their 
individuality,  or  peculiar  difference  ;  ennabling 
each  man  to  perform  his  function — that  which, 
in  Plato's  phrase,  "  he  alone  can  do,  or  can  do 
best  " — for  the  common  good  of  the  social  whole. 

J.  R.  Illingworth. 

All  men,  even  the  saints,  are  interested  only 
in  their  own  affairs  ;  so  the  right  and  the  wrong 
come  to  be  matters  of  the  scope  of  self,  the  reach 
of  self,  the  depth  and  breadth  and  height  of 
self's  affairs.  .  .  .  I  choose  from  the  vast  multi- 
tude of  unacknowledged  brothers  born  into  the 
same  image  and  the  same  family  of  God  this  one 
or  that  to  be  counted  of  my  life.  There  may  be 
some  poor  souls  who  choose  none,  and  are  poor 
indeed ;  but  les  aveugles  volontaires  are  the 
only  men  whose  ignorance  of  the  multitude 
beyond  is  sin  ;  the  man  who  has  shut  out  from 
sight  and  knowledge  some  claim  which  he 
might  hear  and  see  demanding  to  be  recognized ; 
he  has  narrowed  his  attention  and  passed  by  on 
the  other  side,  leaving  victims  he  might  have 
succoured,  deeds  of  love  he  might  have  done, 
unsuccoured  and  undone,  affairs  made  by  him  to 
be  not  his. 

A  Modern  Mystic^ s  Way. 


Couraoe. 


TjEAL  courageously,  and  the  Lord    he   with  the  good. 

2  Chron.  xix.  ii. 

Faint  not  to  he  strong  in  the  Lord  ;  that  He  may  confirm 
you,  cleave  unto  Him.  Ecclus.  xxiv.  24. 

Fear  not,  for  I  have  redeemed  thee  ;  I  have  called  thee 
hy  thy  name  ;  thou  art  mine. 

When  thou  passest  through  the  waters  I  will  he  with  thee  ; 
and  through  the  rivers,  they  shall  not  overflow  thee  :  when 
thou  walkest  through  the  fire,  thou  shalt  not  he  hurned  ; 
neither  shall  the  flame  kindle  upon  thee.  Isa.  xliii.  1,2. 

He  thanked  God,  and  took  courage.  Acts  xxviii.  15. 

Let  not  your  heart  he  troubled,  neither  let  it  he  fearful. 

S,  John  xiv.  27. 

Wait  on  the  Lord  :  Be  strong  and  let  Thine  heart  take 
courage,  yea,  wait  thou  on  the  Lord.  Ps.  xxvii.  14. 

O  God,  Who  knowest  us  to  be  set  in  the  midst  of  so 
many  and  great  dangers,  that  by  reason  of  the  frailty 
of  our  nature  we  cannot  always  stand  upright :  grant 
to  us  such  strength  and  protection  as  may  support  us 
in  all  dangers  and  carry  us  through  all  temptations  : 
through  Jesus  Christ  our  Lord. — Collect  jor  the  Uh 
Sunday  ajter  Epiphany. 

Purge  out  of  every  heart  the  lurking  grudge.  Give 
152 


COURAGE  153 

us  grace  and  strength  to  forbear  and  to  persevere. 
Offenders,  give  us  the  grace  to  accept  and  to  forgive 
offenders.  Forgetful  ourselves,  help  us  to  bear  cheer- 
fully the  forgetfulness  of  others.  Give  us  courage, 
and  gaiety,  and  the  quiet  mind.  Spare  to  us  our 
friends,  soften  to  us  our  enemies.  Bless  us,  if  it  may 
be,  in  all  our  innocent  endeavours.  If  it  may  not, 
give  us  the  strength  to  encounter  that  which  is  to 
come  that  we  be  brave  in  peril,  constant  in  tribulation, 
temperate  in  wrath,  and  in  all  changes  of  fortune, 
and  down  to  the  gates  of  death,  loyal  and  loving 
one  to  another. — B.  L.  Stevenson. 


a  (Bit t  of  (Bob :  approveb  bi?  Ibim* 

His    Majesty    loveth  exceedingly    courageous 
souls.  S.  Theresa. 


When  God  fails,  my  courage  fails  ;    so  long  as 
God  is  God,  my  hope  is  in  Him. 

Stand  thou  firm,  as  an  anvil  when  it  is  smitten. 
It  is  the  part  of  a  great  athlete  to  receive  blows 
and  be  victorious.  But  especially  must  we  for 
God's  sake  endure  all  things,  that  He  also  may 
endure  us. 
Epistle  of  S.  Ignatius  to  S.  Poly  carp  {trans,  by  Bishop  Lightfoot). 

The  spirit-life  is  a  seeking  of  God  for  God's 
sake,  a  disinterested  worship  of  the  Ought  in 


154  FRUITS  OF  SUFFERING 

feeling,  in  thinking,  in  willing  ;    a  dying  to  self 
and  a  living  to  righteousness. 

So  to  die  demands  a  strength  that  God  alone 
can  give,  a  strength  that  makes  us  sons  of  God 
and  more  than  men.  It  demands  a  courage 
which  can  say  to  Truth  :  ''  Lord,  I  will  follow 
Thee  whithersoever  Thou  goest  "  ;  which  can 
leave  positions  of  comfort  and  safety  and  step 
down  fearlessly  on  the  troubled  waters  when 
He  says,  "  It  is  I  ;    be  not  afraid." 

George  Tyrrell. 


Cbri6t'0  Courage :  our  1Reeb  of  3t 

Jesus  Christ  is  to  us  a  Teacher  of  courage,  and 
it  is  courage  of  the  highest  sort  ;  not  courage  of 
the  dash  and  the  rush,  or  the  courage  that  relies 
on  bodily  strength.  It  is  not  the  courage  of 
the  hot  word  or  the  strong  blow  ;  it  is  the  courage 
of  patience  under  wrong,  of  silence  under  injury, 
of  calmness  under  pain.  It  is  a  quiet,  steadfast 
courage — moral  courage. 

We  all  need  this  courage.  Men  in  public 
positions  need  it  to  face  opinion,  and  do  their 
duty  without  fear  or  favour  ;  men  of  business 
need  it  to  stand  out  against  the  sharp  practices 
or  dishonesty  which  bad  custom  may  allow  ;  .  .  . 


COURAGE  155 

all  of  us  in  one  way  or  another  need  it  to  stand 
by  the  right,  to  resist  the  evil,  to  bear  shame 
or  contempt,  for  duty's  sake.  That  is  the  courage 
of  true  manliness. 

The  secret  of  it  in  Jesus  is  twofold — a  pure 
heart  and  trust  in  God.  For  Him  there  was 
only  one  sort  of  fear  worth  listening  to.  "  Fear 
not  them  that  kill  the  body  ;  but  fear  Him  Which 
after  He  hath  killed  hath  power  to  cast  into 

Hell." 

Edward  S.  Talbot  {Bishop  of  Winchester). 


In  cultured  circles  it  requires  some  courage, 
not  so  much  to  admit  that  one  belongs  to  the 
Christian  brotherhood,  as  to  carry  out  its  idea 
calmly  and  unobtrusively,  in  the  midst  of  alien 
or  antagonistic  influences  ;  and  one  of  the  chief 
difhculties  in  our  complex  modern  life  is  how 
to  unite  catholicity  of  spirit  with  religious  earnest- 
ness. It  has  always  been  found  extremely  diffi- 
cult to  combine  the  recognition  of  good  in  others 
with  energetic  protest  against  evil  of  all  kinds. 

It  is  the  duty  of  the  Christian  brotherhood 
to  seek  out  the  latent  good  :  and  if  possible  to 
evoke  it,  in  all  quarters,  and  in  every  character. 
At  the  same  time,  it  is  bound  to  bring  forward, 
and   to   exhibit,    the   noblest   possible   standard 


156  FRUITS  OF  SUFFERING 

of  action,  while  it  recoils  from  baseness  of  every 
kind,  and  draws  the  line — sharp,  distinct  and 
clear — between  the  two  camps  of  light  and  dark- 
ness, the  right  and  the  wrong,  the  good  and  the 
evil.     It  is  not  easy  to  combine  these  two  things. 

William  Knight. 


lenburance. 

Give  him  his  martial  honours,  for  he  fought 
A  harder  foe  than  man,  and  ne'er  betrayed 
The  trust  upon  him  laid  ; 
Nay,  not  so  much  as  by  a  rebel  thought. 

Not  where  the  golden  hope  of  glory  lured, 
Not  on  the  field  of  fame  he  fought  and  fell. 
But  he  endured  right  well ; 
Yea,  as  a  soldier  should,  he  silently  endured. 

Mary  E.  Coleridge. 

I  beg  you  take  courage  :  the  brave  soul  can 
mend  even  disaster. 

Catherine  of  Russia. 

Iberotem  Innate  in  flDen^ 

It  is  a  commonplace  that  we  cannot  answer 
for  ourselves  before  we  have  been  tried.  But 
it  is  not  so  common  a  reflection,  and  surely  more 


COURAGE  157 

consoling,  that  we  usually  find  ourselves  a  good 
deal  braver  and  better  than  we  thought.  I 
believe  this  is  every  one's  experience  ;  but  an 
apprehension  that  they  may  belie  themselves 
in  the  future  prevents  mankind  from  trumpeting 
this  cheerful  sentiment  abroad.  I  wish  sincerely 
.  .  .  there  had  been  some  one  to  put  me  in  a 
good  heart  about  life  when  I  was  younger  ;  to  tell 
me  how  dangers  are  most  portentous  on  a  distant 
sight  ;  and  how  the  good  in  a  man's  spirit  will 
not  suffer  itself  to  be  overlaid,  and  rarely  or  never 
deserts  him  in  the  hour  of  need. 

R.  L.  Stevenson. 


It  is  a  poor  heart,  and  a  poorer  age,  that  cannot 

accept  the  conditions  of  life  with  some  heroic 

readiness. 

Ibid. 

It  is  not  to  taste  sweet  things,  but  to  do  noble 
and  true  things,  and  vindicate  himself  under 
God's  Heaven  as  a  god-made  man,  that  the 
poorest  son  of  Adam  dimly  longs.  Show  him 
the  way  of  doing  that,  the  dullest  day-drudge 
kindles  into  a  hero.  They  wrong  man  greatly 
who  say  he  is  to  be  seduced  by  ease.  Difficulty, 
abnegation,  martyrdom,  death,  are  the  allure- 


158  FRUITS  OF  SUFFERING 

ments  that  act  on  the  heart  of  man.  Kindle 
the  inner  genial  life  of  him,  you  have  a  flame 
that  burns  up  all  lower  considerations.  Not 
happiness,  but  something  higher.  .  .  .  Not  by 
flattering  our  appetites  :  no,  by  awakening  the 
Heroic  that  slumbers  in  every  heart,  can  any 
Religion  gain  followers. 

Thomas  Carlyle. 
^< 

"  Do  I,  indeed,  lack  courage  ?  "  inquired  Mr. 
Archer  of  himself.  "  Courage,  the  footstool 
of  the  virtues,  upon  which  they  stand  ?  Courage, 
that  a  poor  private  carrying  a  musket  has  to 
spare  of  ;  that  does  not  fail  a  weasel  or  a  rat ; 
that  is  a  brutish  faculty  ?  I  to  fail  there,  I 
wonder  ?  But  what  is  courage  ?  The  constancy 
to  endure  oneself  or  to  see  others  suffer  ?  The 
itch  of  ill-advised  activity :  mere  shuttle-witted- 
ness,  or  to  be  still  and  patient  ?  To  inquire 
of  the  significance  of  words  is  to  rob  ourselves 
of  what  we  seem  to  know,  and  yet,  of  all  things, 
certainly  to  stand  still  is  the  least  heroic." 

R.  L.  Stevenson. 

Fear  death  ? — to  feel  the  fog  in  my  throat, 

The  mist  in  my  face, 
When  the  snow  begins,  and  the  blasts  denote 

I  am  nearing  the  place, 


COURAGE  159 

The  power  of  the  night,   the  press  of  the  storm, 

The  post  of  the  foe  ; 
Where  he  stands,  the  Arch  Fear  in  a  visible  form, 

Yet  the  strong  man  must  go  ; 
For  the  journey  is  done,  and  the  summit  attained, 

And  the  barriers  fall. 
Though  a  battle's  to  fight  ere  the  guerdon  be  gained. 

The  reward  of  it  all. 
I  was  ever  a  fighter,  so — one  fight  more, 

The  best  and  the  last  ! 
I  would  hate  that  death  bandaged  my  eyes,  and  forbore, 

And  bade  me  creep  past. 
No  !  let  me  taste  the  whole  of  it,  fare  like  my  peers, 

The  heroes  of  old. 
Bear  the  brunt,  in  a  minute  pay  glad  life's  arrears 

Of  pain,  darkness  and  cold. 
For  sudden  the  worst  turns  the  best  to  the  brave, 

The  black  minute's  at  end. 
And  the  elements'  rage,  the  fiend  voices  that  rave, 

Shall  dwindle,  shall  blend, 
Shall  change,  shall  become  first  a  peace  out  of  pain. 

Then  a  light,  then  thy  breast, 
O  thou  soul  of  my  soul  !     I  shall  clasp  thee  again, 

And  with  God  be  the  rest  ! 

R.  Browning. 

ZLbe  lanconquerable  IRature  of  Courage* 

David's  life  and  history,  as  written  for  us  in 
those  Psalms  of  his,  I  consider  to  be  the  truest 
emblem  ever  given  of  a  man's  moral  progress 
and  warfare  here  below.     All  earnest  souls  will 


i6o  FRUITS  OF  SUFFERING 

ever  discern  in  it  the  faithful  struggle  of  an  earnest 
human  soul  towards  what  is  good  and  best. 
Struggle  often  baffled,  sore  baffled,  down  as 
into  entire  wreck  ;  yet  a  struggle  never  ended  ; 
ever,  with  tears,  repentance,  true  unconquerable 
purpose,  begun  anew.  Poor  human  nature  ! 
Is  not  a  man's  walking,  in  truth,  always  that  : 
"  A  succession  of  falls  ?  "  Man  can  do  no  other. 
In  this  wild  element  of  a  life  he  has  to  struggle 
onwards  ;  now  fallen,  deep  abased  ;  and  ever, 
with  tears,  repentance,  with  bleeding  heart, 
he  has  to  rise  again,  struggle  again  still  onwards. 
That  his  struggle  be  a  faithful  unconquerable 
one  :    that  is  the  question  of  questions. 

Thomas  Carlyle. 

Forth  from  the  casement,  on  the  plain 
Where  honour  has  the  world  to  gain, 
Pour  forth  and  bravely  do  your  part, 
O  Knights  of  the  unshielded  heart  ! 
Forth  and  for  ever  forward  ! — out 
From  prudent  turret  and  redoubt. 
And  in  the  mellay  charge  amain, 
To  fall,  but  yet  to  rise  again  ! 
Captive  ?     Ah,  still,  to  honour  bright, 
A  captive  soldier  of  the  right  ! 
Or  free  and  fighting,  good  with  ill  ? 
Unconquering  but  unconquered  still  ! 

R.  L.  Stevenson. 


COURAGE  i6i 

As  courage  and  intelligence  are  the  two  qualities 
best  worth  a  good  man's  cultivation,  so  it  is  the 
first  part  of  intelligence  to  recognise  our  precari- 
ous estate  in  life,  and  the  first  part  of  courage 
to  be  not  at  all  abashed  before  the  fact.  A 
frank  and  somewhat  headlong  carriage,  not  look- 
ing too  anxiously  before,  not  dallying  in  maudlin 
regret  over  the  past,  stamps  the  man  who  is  well 
armoured  for  this  world. 

R.  L.  Stevenson. 


One  who  never  turned  his   back,   but  marched  breast 
forw^ard, 
Never  doubted  clouds  vv^ould  break ; 
Never    dreamed,    though    right    w^ere    vv^orsted,    wrong 

would  triumph, 
Held  we  fall  to  rise,  are  baffled  to  fight  better, 
Sleep  to  wake. 

R.  Browning. 


A.G,  M 


Ibope. 

J?LESSED  is   the  man  that  trusteth  in  the  Lord,  and 
whose  hope  the  Lord  is.  Jer.  xvii.  7. 

Thou  art  my  hope,  0  Lord  God.  Ps.  Ixxi.  5. 

Now  the  God  of  hope  fill  you  with  all  joy  and  peace  in 
believing,  that  ye  may  abound  in  hope,  in  the  power  of  the 
Holy  Ghost.  Rom.  xv.  13. 

Thou  wast  wearied  with  the  length  of  thy  way  ;  yet 
saidst  thou  not,  There  is  no  hope  :  thou  didst  find  a 
quickening  of  thy  strength  ;  therefore  thou  wast  not  faint. 

Isa.  Ivii.  10. 

By  hope  were  we  saved  :  but  hope  that  is  seen  is  not  hope  : 
for  who  hopeth  for  that  which  he  seeth  ? 

But  if  we  hope  for  that  which  we  see  not,  then  do  we 
with  patience  wait  for  it.  Rom.  viii.  24,  25. 

Looking  for  the  blessed  hope  and  appearing  of  the 
glory  of  our  great  God  and  Saviour  Jesus  Christ. 

Titus  ii.  13. 

Every  one  that  hath  this  hope  set  on  him  purifieth  himself 
even  as  he  is  pure.  i  S.  John  iii.  3. 

Merciful  Lord,  the  Comforter  and  Teacher  of  Thy 
faithful  people,  increase  in  Thy  Church  the  desires 
which  Thou  hast  given  :  and  confirm  the  hearts  of 
those  who  hope  in  Thee  by  enabling  them  to  understand 

162 


HOPE  163 

the  depth  of  Thy  promises  ;  that  all  Thine  adopted 
sons  may  even  now  behold  with  the  eyes  of  faith,  and 
patiently  wait  for,  the  light  which  as  yet  Thou  dost 
not  openly  manifest ;    through  Jesus  Christ  our  Lord. 

O  God  of  hope,  fill  Thy  despondent  children  with  all 
joy  and  peace  in  beheving,  that  they  may  abound  in 
hope  in  the  power  of  the  Holy  Ghost. — Sursum  Corda. 

O  My  God,  I  hope  in  Thee,  that  Thou  wilt  help  me 
in  all  my  troubles,  that  Thou  wilt  forgive  me  all  my 
sins,  and  that  Thou  wilt  fit  me  to  be  with  Thee  in 
heaven  at  last.  O  Lord,  in  Thee  have  I  trusted ;  let  me 
never  be  confounded. 

3n  IRature  anb  in  Cbrtat 

The  hope  which  God  has  hidden  in  the  germ 
of  all  created  things  expresses  itself  in  the  vigour 
of  every  line  of  the  bare  tree's  branching.  In 
hope  it  plunges  downward  into  the  dark  to  wrestle 
with  the  forces  of  nature  underground,  and  bind 
to  itself  the  solidity  of  the  earth  ;  in  hope  it 
builds  up  the  wreathed  strength  of  its  stem  and 
stretches  upward  the  patient  appeal  of  its  empti- 
ness thither  where  the  sun  was  last  seen,  ready 
for  the  storms  that  are  coming  ;  and  every  least 
twig  that  is  *'  caught  and  cuffed  by  the  gale  " 
is  alive  with  all  the  hopes  of  next  Spring,  and 
is  nursing  every  hope  under  the  bitter  rain 
and  sleet. 

(The  Soul's)  Winter  comes  never  to  kill,  but 


i64  FRUITS  OF  SUFFERING 

to  invigorate  a  man's  life  by  concentrating  it, — 
by  driving  it  back  to  its  root,  which  is  God.  The 
troubles  are  not  to  stop  the  current  of  our  life, 
but  to  change  its  direction  from  the  surface 
to  the  centre. 

Self-despair  is  a  necessary  condition  of  the 
triumph  of  the  virtue  of  hope  in  God. 

Once  our  hope  was  in  nature,  in  making  the 
best  of  our  circumstances  whatever  they  might 
be  ;  and  looking  into  our  grave,  we  found  that 
hope  had  died.  But  Christ  is  born  into  the  dead 
world,  and  by  the  Sacraments  He  is  born  spiritu- 
ally in  us,  and  now  Christ  Himself,  Who  never 
dies,  is  become  our  Hope. 

"  The  silent  stars  ring  out  with  mirth, 
The  graves  with  grass  are  green  ; 
Christ  cometh  twice  upon  the  earth, 
We  live  between." 

George  Congreve. 


Zbc  (Brace  of  Ibope. 

Pillars  of  the  Ducal  Palace,  Venice. 

Hope. — A  figure  full  of  devotional  expression, 
holding  up  its  hands  as  in  prayer,  and  looking  to 
a  hand  which  is  extended  towards  it  out  of  sun- 
beams. 


HOPE  165 

Of  all  the  virtues,  this  is  the  more  distinctively 
Christian  ;  and  above  all  others,  it  seems  to  me 
the  testing  virtue, — that  by  the  possession  of 
which  we  may  most  certainly  determine  whether 
we  are  Christians  or  not ;  for  many  men  have 
charity,  that  is  to  say,  general  kindness  of  heart, 
or  even  a  kind  of  faith,  who  have  not  any  habitual 
hofe  of,  or  longing  for,  heaven. 

The  Hope  of  Giotto  is  represented  as  winged, 
rising  in  the  air,  while  an  angel  holds  a  crown 
before  her. 

John  Ruskin. 

There  is  no  one  in  whom  the  grace  of  hope  is 
not  beset  by  the  easy  hopelessness  of  self-satis- 
faction. But  to  some  there  come  fiercer  trials 
than  these  :  the  open  invitation  of  sin  ;  the 
sickening  misery  of  repeated  penitence  which 
has  never  been  perfected  by  purity  :  the  lying 
whispers  of  temptation  which  say  that  men  will 
be  men,  hint  that  they  may  be  brutes,  and  forget 
that  they  have  been  saints  ; — these  are  antagonists 
of  hope  from  which  only  the  strength  of  the  Holy 
Ghost  can  rescue  our  hindered  souls. 

He  can.  He  will,  so  rescue  and  sustain  all  who 
seek  His  Presence  and  listen  for  His  Voice  :  and 
none  can  utterly  faint  who  look  for  the  goodness 
of  the  Lord  in  the  land  of  the  living  :   for  if   we 


i66  FRUITS  OF  SUFFERING 

hope  for  that  we  see  not,  then  do  we  with  patience 
wait  for  it. 

Francis  Paget. 

Hope — the  temper  and  virtue  answering  to 
and  embracing  great  and  worthy  things  hoped 
for — elevates  and  strengthens  and  inspires.  This 
is  why  it  is  one  of  the  great  elements  of  the  reli- 
gious temper  ;  this  is  why  it  ranks  with  faith  and 
charity.  It  is  one  of  the  great  and  necessary 
springs  of  full  religious  action. 

Hope  is  the  energy  and  effort  of  faith  ;  the 
strong  self-awakening  from  the  spells  of  discour- 
agement and  listlessness  and  despair.  What 
gives  its  moral  value  to  hope,  what  makes  it  a 
virtue  and  a  duty,  is  that  in  its  higher  forms  it 
is  a  real  act  and  striving  of  the  will  and  the  moral 
nature.  It  is  an  act,  often  a  difficult  act,  of 
choice  and  will,  like  the  highest  forms  of  courage. 
It  is  a  refusal  to  be  borne  down  and  cowed  and 
depressed  by  evil ;  a  refusal,  because  it  is  not 
right,  to  indulge  in  the  melancholy  pleasure,  no 
unreal  one,  of  looking  on  the  dark  side  of  things. 
It  is  so  that  hope  plays  so  great  a  part  in  the 
spiritual  life  ;  that  it  fights  with  such  power  on 
the  side  of  God. 

R.  W.  Church. 


HOPE  167 

^be  StrenQtb  of  ©ptimiem. 

Do  you  not  think  that  the  ordinary  standpoint 
of  so-called  Christian  teaching  is  undergoing  a 
destruction  ;  and  that  the  Devil's  travesty  is 
v^aning  ?  Terrorism  is  no  real  factor  in  Christi- 
anity. Surely  Christianity  is  the  response  v^hich 
follows  the  recognition  of  Love  and  its  beneficent 
Purpose  of  universal  beatitude.  In  that  atmo- 
sphere the  heart  beats  freely  and  fully,  for  it  is 
the  Hope  w^hich  Love  begets  that  saves.  We 
ought  to  breathe  the  Hope  before  v^e  attempt 
to  deal  v^ith  the  distresses  of  life  ;  then  should 
v^^e  be  armed  v^ith  the  Sympathy  that  is  power- 
ful, and  not  merely  with  the  sympathy  that  is 
the  recognition  of  a  common  woe. 

Letters  from  a  Mystic  of  the  Present  Day. 

There  is  no  trace  in  anything  Christ  said  or 
did  of  the  desponding  cry  that  ''  all  things  are 
out  of  joint  " — no  touch  of  that  pessimism  which 
abandons  itself  to  a  belief  in  the  necessity  of 
evil,  or  of  that  cynicism  that  scorns  what  it 
cannot  cure — but  there  is  everywhere  the  very 
radiance  of  hope  in  reference  to  mankind  at 
large,  and  the  patience  of  hope  in  following 
out  the  case  of  each  individual  man,  woman  and 
child. 


i68  FRUITS   OF  SUFFERING 

In  the  same  connexion  we  should  note  His 
calm  confidence  in  the  final  coming  of  the  King- 
dom of  Righteousness,  or  the  victory  of  moral 
order  in  the  world,  which  grew  stronger  as  the 
sorrows  of  His  personal  life  increased,  and  its 
tragedy  was  consummated. 

William  Knight. 


Say  not  the  struggle  nought  availeth, 
The  labour  and  the  wounds  are  vain, 

The  enemy  faints  not,  nor  faileth, 

And  as  things  have  been,  they  remain. 

If  hopes  were  dupes,  fears  may  be  liars ; 

It  may  be,  in  yon  smoke  concealed, 
Your  comrades  chase  e'en  now  the  fliers. 

And,  but  for  you,  possess  the  field. 

For  while  the  tired  waves,  vainly  breaking. 
Seem  here  no  painful  inch  to  gain, 

Far  back,  through  creeks  and  inlets  making. 
Comes  silent,  flooding  in,  the  main. 

And  not  by  eastern  windows  only, 

When  dayhght  comes,  comes  in  the  light. 

In  front,  the  sun  climbs  slow,  how  slowly. 
But  westward,  look,  the  land  is  bright. 

Arthur  Hugh  Clough. 


HOPE  169 

C:be  ncver^^failing  Cbaracter  of  Ibope. 

Man  is,  properly  speaking,  based  upon  Hope. 
He  has  no  other  possession  but  Hope ;  this 
world  of  his  is  emphatically  the  "  Place  of  Hope." 

Thomas  Carlyle. 

Hope,  they  say,  deserts  us  at  no  period  of  our 
existence.  From  first  to  last,  and  in  the  face 
of  smarting  disillusions,  we  continue  to  expect 
good  fortune,  better  health  and  better  conduct  : 
and  that  so  confidently,  that  we  judge  it  needless 
to  deserve  them. 

R.  L.  Stevenson. 

From  first  to  last  the  Bible  is  one  unbroken, 
persistent  call  to  hope — to  look  from  the  past 
and  present  to  the  future. 

Amid  the  worst  and  most  miserable  conditions 
there  is  one  element  which  is  never  allowed  to 
disappear — the  strength  of  a  tenacious  and  uncon- 
querable hope.  Hope,  never  destroyed,  however 
overthrown,  never  obscured  even  amid  the  storm 
and  dust  of  ruin,  is  the  prominent  characteristic 
of  the  Old  Testament.  All  leads  back  to  hope — 
hope  of  the  loftiest  and  most  assured    mind. 

"  Whatsoever   things   were  written   aforetime 


170  FRUITS  OF  SUFFERING 

were  written  for  our  learning  ;  that  we,  through 
patience  and  comfort  of  the  Scriptures,  might 
have  hope."  Over  all  other  voices  in  the  Old 
Testament,  voices  of  command,  entreaty,  warn- 
ing, rebuke,  threatening,  of  triumph  and  gladness, 
of  sorrow  and  desolation,  rises  dominant  the  voice 
of  consolation,  the  instant  call  to  hope  even 
against  hope,  which  elevates  and  strengthens  as 
well  as  reassures. 

R.  W.  Church. 


Perhaps  in  the  rapid  narration  of  Job's  many 
afflictions  we  are  apt  to  miss  the  lesson  of  his 
protracted  long  suffering,  and  to  regard  his  suc- 
cessive blows  collectively  as  one.  We  should 
space  them  out,  and  consider  how,  after  the  first, 
he  gradually  reconciled  himself  to  God's  will, 
and  was  full  of  confidence  that  He  Who  had 
afflicted  would  presently  heal  and  console  him  : 
and  lo  !  instead  of  consolation,  comes  another 
blow  harder  and  seemingly  less  deserved  than 
the  first.  Will  he  still  hope  ?  Will  he  still  say 
to  his  friends,  "  Wait,  and  see  the  deliverance  of 
God  ?  "  And  so,  although  time  after  time,  his 
hopes  of  speedy  deliverance  are  frustrated,  we 
find  him  as  hopeful  as  ever,  even  though  death, 
which  to  the  Oriental  mind  is  the  culmination  of 


HOPE  171 

evil,  stares  him  in  the  face.  "  Though  He  slay 
me,"  i.e.,  though  He  cut  off  my  last  hope, 
"  yet  will  I  hope  in  Him  " — hoping,  because  it 
is  hopeless. 

George  Tyrrell. 

There  is  a  grace  which  takes  the  place  of  know- 
ledge and  brings  the  will  and  the  aspirations 
of  men  into  a  mysterious  harmony  with  the 
unseen  ;  a  grace  which  lifts  the  desires  of  the 
human  heart  above  all  that  this  fragment  of 
the  universe  can  offer,  and  orders  its  impulses 
according  to  a  truly  universal  law ;  a  grace 
which  leads  us  on  when  knowledge  falters, 
and  will  lead  when  knowledge  shall  vanish  away  ; 
a  grace  which  is  His  gift  alone  Whose  advent  we 
commemorate  to-day  :  that  grace  which  in  the 
redeemed  of  Christ  rests  upon  experience  ; 
and   maketh   not   ashamed — the  grace   of  hope. 

Francis  Paget. 

1^ 


5o^. 


JJ/'HOSO  offereth  the  sacrifice  of  thanksgiving  glorifieth 
^^     Me.  Ps.  1.  23. 

He  that  is  of  a  cheerful  heart  hath  a  continual  feast. 

Prov.  XV.  15. 

Let  all  those  that  put  their  trust  in  Thee  rejoice  :  let 
them  ever  shout  for  joy,  because  Thou  defendest  them  : 
let  them  also   that  love    Thy    name  he  joyful  in  Thee. 

Ps.  V.   II. 

The  fear  of  the  Lord  shall  delight  the  heart,  and  shall 
give  gladness  and  joy,  and  length  of  days.  Ecclus.  i.  12. 

And  the  ransomed  of  the  Lord  shall  return,  and  come 
with  singing  unto  Zion  ;  and  everlasting  joy  shall  he  upon 
their  heads  :  they  shall  ohtain  gladness  and  joy,  and 
sorrow  and  sighing  shall  flee  away.  Isa.  xxxv.  10. 

Who,  for  the  joy  that  was  set  hefore  Him,  endured  the 
Cross,  despising  shame,  and  hath  sat  down  at  the  right  hand 
of  the  throne  of  God.  Heb.  xii.  2. 

And  ye  therefore  now  have  sorrow  :  hut  I  will  see  you 
again,  and  your  heart  shall  rejoice,  and  your  joy  no  one 
taketh  away  from  you.  S.  John  xvi.  22. 

O  Almighty  and  most  merciful  God,  of  Thy  bountiful 
goodness  keep  us,  we  beseech  Thee,  from  all  things 
that  may  hurt  us  :  that  we,  being  ready  both  in 
body  and  soul,  may  cheerfully  accomplish  those  things 

172 


JOY  173 

that  Thou  wouldest  have  done  :   through  Jesus  Christ 
our  Lord. — Collect  jor  the  20th  Sunday  after  Trinity. 

The  day  returns  and  brings  us  the  petty  round  of 
irritating  concerns  and  duties.  Help  us  to  play  the 
man,  help  us  to  perform  them  with  laughter  and  kind 
faces,  let  cheerfulness  abound  with  industry.  Give 
us  to  go  blithely  on  our  business  all  this  day,  bring  us  to 
our  resting  beds  weary  and  content  and  undishonoured, 
and  grant  us  in  the  end  the  gift  of  sleep. — R.  L.  Steven- 
son. 

O  God,  our  true  Joy,  and  the  Giver  of  all  good  things, 
be  pleased  to  grant  to  those  of  Thy  servants  whom 
Thou  hast  called  to  follow  Thee  in  the  sunny  paths  of 
joy  and  peace,  that  they  may  be  filled  with  the  Spirit, 
singing  and  making  melody  in  their  hearts  to  Thee, 
and  giving  Thee  thanks  always  for  all  things,  in  the 
name  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ. — Sursum  Corda. 


m  2)i0tincn?  Cbrlstian  attribute. 

Prominent  among  these  (attributes  of  Christian 
character)  is  gratitude  or  thankfulness,  with  all 
the  joy  and  brightness  that  the  grateful  temper 
brings.  Many  men  can  pray  to  God  in  times 
of  trouble,  with  a  hope  that  is  very  far  from  con- 
fidence, if  haply  they  may  find  help.  But  to  be 
grateful,  to  give  thanks  to  Him,  in  times  of 
gladness,  is  a  far  higher  act  of  faith  in  His 
personal,  providential  care.  It  argues  a  fuller 
assurance  that   He,  in  very  deed,  is  love  :    and 


174  FRUITS  OF  SUFFERING 

that   "  every  good   gift  and   every  perfect   gift 
Cometh  down  from  above   from   the    Father   of 

light." 

J.  R.  Illingworth. 

His  was,  indeed,  a  good  influence  in  life  while 
he  was  still  among  us  ;  he  had  a  fresh  laugh  ; 
it  did  you  good  to  see  him  ;  and,  however  sad 
he  may  have  been  at  heart,  he  always  bore  a 
bold  and  cheerful  countenance,  and  took  For- 
tune's worst  as  it  were  the  showers  of  spring. 

Robert  Louis  Stevenson. 

If  the  Psalms  have  taught  us  the  language  of 
penitence,  .  .  .  what  ever  equalled,  before  the 
days  of  Pentecost,  the  freedom,  the  joy  of  their 
worship  ?  Who  could  have  imagined  such  varied, 
such  abounding  exultation  at  the  glories,  the 
bounty,  the  loving  kindness,  the  hopes  of  God  ? 
When  does  it  even  seem  to  tire  and  flag — the 
rush,  the  sweep  of  that  flood  of  gladness,  that  in 
spite  of  all  interruptions  of  distress  and  fear, 
pours  through  the  Book  of  Psalms,  filling  our 
earthly  days  with  glory  and  hope,  and  making 
us  feel  that,  short  and  few  as  they  are,  vain  and 
incomplete  as  they  seem,  that  can  be  no  poor  and 
worthless  a  life  which  man  passes  under  the 
"  shadow  of  the  wings  of  God," — sheltered  and 


JOY  175 

guided  by   Him   Whose   "  righteousness   is   like 
the  strong  mountains,  and  His  judgments  like  the 

great  deep." 

R.  W.  Church. 

It  seems  to  me  that  the  Gospel  of  the  Trans- 
figuration should  be  more  widely  proclaimed 
among  us.  The  poets  sing  of  it,  the  mystics 
show  it,  even  the  scientific  men  have  some 
foreshadowings  ;  but  in  the  common  ways 
of  men  it  is  unheard.  "  God  is  Joy  itself." 
Where  is  the  man  who  shall  preach  with  power 
to  the  multitude  of  the  transfiguring  of  pleasure 
into  joy,  as  well  as  of  the  like  transfiguring  of 
pain  ?  "  Joy,  then,"  says  Myers,  "  I  will  boldly 
affirm,  is  the  aim  of  the  Universe  ;  that  Joy 
which  is  the  very  bloom  of  Love  and  Wisdom  ; 
and  men's  souls  need  attuning  to  that  inconceiv- 
able delight." 

A  Modern  Mystic's  Way. 


3t0  Jnfluence. 

You  never  know  how  one  word,  how  your 
mere  smile,  or  tone  of  voice,  alters  life  for 
the  better  for  your  friend  who  was  lost  in 
the  desert  of  his  gloomy  thoughts  just  now, — 
how  it  brings  him  home  again,  how  differently 


176  FRUITS  OF  SUFFERING 

he  can  face  his  warfare,  through  the  assurance 
of  your  friendly  cheer  ;  and  when  from 
his  work  he  goes  to  his  uncheerful  room,  he 
goes  with  joy,  because  he  no  longer  goes  there 
alone,  but  brings  Christ  risen  from  the  dead  in 
his  heart  there,  and  the  dead  staff  of  his  soul 
finds  the  inexpressible  flowers  of  Christ's  life 
bloom  in  his  prayers  to-day  through  the  grace 
of  your  salutation  in  the  love  of  Christ. 

The  voice  of  joy  and  health  is  in  the  dwellings 
of  the  righteous,  not  the  faint  cheer  of  feeble 
creatures  recovering.  The  joy  and  health  of  Man 
in  God,  of  Jesus  risen  and  ascended,  is  communi- 
cated to  us  in  Sacraments.  We  must  resolve  to 
bring  the  desire  of  God  into  all  our  duties  ;  not 
to  leave  our  prayers  and  Sacraments  to  do  us  good 
mechanically,  but  to  rise  and  exert  the  life  of 
Christ  risen,  which  we  receive  by  them,  and  bring 
its  courage  and  joy  into  everything  we  do. 

George  Congreve. 

Blessed  are  the  Happiness  Makers.     Blessed  are 

they  who  know  how  to  shine  on  one's  gloom  with 

their  cheer. 

H.  Ward  Beecher. 

A  crowd  of  troubles  passed  him  by 
As  he  with  courage  waited  ; 


JOY  177 

He  said,  "  Where  do  you  troubles  fly 

When  you  are  thus  belated  ?  " 
"  We  go,"  they  say,  "  to  those  who  mope, 

Who  look  on  life  dejected. 
Who  weakly  say  *  goodbye  '  to  hope, 

We  go  where  we're  expected." 

F.  J.  Allison. 

30?  16   neceeaarili?   mlyeb    voitb  0ome 

6at)ne60  in  tbl^  life,  but  tbia  ta  quite 

bietinct  from  Hccible, 

It  is  noteworthy  that  there  is  impressed  a 
certain  sadness  on  the  Christian  countenance — 
in  all  its  most  characteristic  types — in  contrast 
with  the  refined  joyousness  of  the  Greek,  and 
the  robust  valour  of  the  Roman  face  ;  but  it 
is  a  sadness  inseparable  from  the  pursuit  of 
the  loftiest  ideals.  A  significant  fact,  however, 
remains  :  the  sadness  referred  to  is  neither  austere, 
nor  morose,  nor  petulant,  nor  desponding.  It 
is  that  Divine  sadness,  which  arises  from  the 
glimpse  of  far-off  possibilities,  yet  in  store,  of 
ideals  that  are  believed  in,  although  they  are 
unreached,  and  are  passionately  loved,  though 
unattained.  This  is  seen,  in  many  characteristic 
and  even  monumental  aspects,  both  in  the  poetry, 
and  in  the  art  of  Christendom.  Its  hymns,  its 
litanies,  its  music,  the  very  architecture  of  its 

A.G,  N 


178  FRUITS  OF  SUFFERING 

churches,  all  show  the  blending  of  a  sense  of  loss, 

with  a  belief  in  the  Divine  ideal,  and  aspiration 

after  it. 

William  Knight. 

Why  do  we  so  often  prefer  to  believe  in  the 
necessity  of  suffering  and  weakness  rather  than 
in  the  possibility  of  strength  and  gladness? 

C.  B.  Newcomb. 

A  happy  man  or  woman  is  a  better  thing  to 
find  than  a  five-pound  note.  He  or  she  is  a 
radiating  focus  of  good  will ;  and  their  entrance 
into  a  room  is  as  though  another  candle  had  been 
lighted.  We  need  not  care  whether  they  could 
prove  the  forty-seventh  problem  ;  they  do  a  better 
thing  than  that,  they  practically  demonstrate 
the  great  Theorem  of  the  Liveableness  of  Life. 

R.  L.  Stevenson. 

I  think  that  sadness  is  an  idiot  born, 
She  has  no  eyes  to  see  the  sun  in  heaven, 
No  ears  to  hear  the  music  of  the  earth. 
No  voice  to  utter  forth  her  ov^n  desire. 

Mary  E.  Coleridge. 

Gentleness  and  cheerfulness,  these  come  before 
all  morality  ;    they  are  the  perfect  duties,  .  .  , 


JOY  179 

If  your  morals  make  you  dreary,  depend  upon  it 

they  are  wrong.     I  do  not  say  "  give  them  up," 

for  they  may  be  all  you  have  ;  but  conceal  them 

like  a  vice,  lest  they  should  spoil  the  lives  of 

better  and  simpler  people. 

R.  L.  Stevenson. 

It  is  a  good  thing  to  be  happy  alone.  It  is 
better  to  be  happy  in  company,  but  good  to  be 
happy  alone.  Men  owe  me  the  advantage  of 
their  society,  but  if  they  deny  me  that  just  debt, 
I  will  not  be  unjust  to  myself,  and  side  with  them 
in  bereaving  me.  I  will  not  be  discouraged,  lest 
I  be  miserable  for  company.  More  company  in- 
creases happiness,  but  does  not  lighten  or  diminish 
misery. 

Happiness  was  not  made  to  be  boasted  but 
enjoyed.  A  man  may  enjoy  great  delights,  with- 
out telling  them. 

Thomas  Traherne  (1636-1674). 

^be  3oi?  of  3C6U6  Cbriet :  IReflectet)  In 
IRature. 

And,  behold,  the  rod  of  Aaron  for  the  house  of  Levi  was 
budded,  and  brought  forth  buds,  and  bloomed  blossoms, 
and  yielded  almonds. 

The  almond  is  called  in  Hebrew  "  the  wakeful 
tree,"  or  "  the  watcher  "  because  it  is  the  earliest 


i8o  FRUITS  OF  SUFFERING 

of  all  to  awake  from  the  winter  sleep  of  nature.  .  .  . 
Before  there  is  a  hint  of  green  on  any  tree  its 
bare  winter  branches  are  jewelled  with  fresh 
pink  flowers.  It  seems  like  miracle  or  magic,  it 
is  so  unexpected,  so  strangely  superior  to  its 
ungenial  surroundings,  for  it  is  months  since 
you  had  a  thought  of  flowers.  It  is  so  delicate, 
too,  and  trusts  its  extraordinary  beauty  so  bravely 
to  the  wild  moods  of  spring.  In  the  midst  of 
our  winter  death,  here  blooms  a  thing  with  the 
life  and  beauty  of  a  better  world  ;  here,  a  feast 
of  joyous  colour  welcomes  you,  quite  alien  to 
the  austere  tints  and  the  gloom  of  sunless 
months  which  you  are  grown  used  to. 

Just  such  a  change  Christ  has  brought  into 
human  life,  a  profound  change  in  its  value, 
significance,  and  beauty.  Think  of  the  ever- 
varying,  ever-growing  spiritual  beauty  which 
grace  has  made  to  spring  in  Christian  character 
through  the  ages.  The  fallen  world  had  joy  of 
youth,  but  it  was  a  joy  like  the  beauty  of  the 
unfertilized  flower,  which  has  its  day,  but  no 
mystery  of  fruit-bearing  within  itself,  no  hidden 
hope  of  another  day. 

To-day  it  lives  again  with  a  new  life. 

George  Congreve. 


JOY  i8i 

"  Who  for  the  joy  that  was  set  before  Him 
endured  the  shame."  What  is  the  sufficient 
motive — ^power  of  a  perfect  endurance  ?  I  agree 
with  Aristotle  that  the  highest  and  most 
prevailing  motive  is  that  of  pleasure,  happiness, 
and  blessedness,  rather  than  that  of  mere  duty 
without  these.  Nothing  is  done  perfectly  until 
it  is  done  with  joy.  Pleasure  in  its  truest  sense 
perfects  every  function.  God  is  not  law  or 
duty,  but  love  and  blessedness.  Without  love 
enough  to  make  it  joyous  there  is  no  perfect 
service  nor  sacrifice. 

There  was  the  consummate  joy  of  perfect 
moral  and  spiritual  action,  attainment,  life, 
in  the  supremest  temptations  and  trials  of 
Jesus  Christ.  We  must  not  exclude  the  personal 
joy  of  His  own  perfection  and  blessedness. 
God  did  highly  exalt  Him,  and  gave  Him  the  name 
that  is  above  every  name.  He  was  anointed  with 
the  oil  of  gladness  above  His  fellows. 

William  P.  Du  Bose. 

3o?  mu0t  be  eougbt,  not  waiteb  for,  anb 
recogniseb  ever^wbere^ 

There  are  simple  souls  that  do  not  wait  to 
rejoice  till  they  have  won  a  victory,  but  go  into 


i82  FRUITS  OF  SUFFERING 

the  battle  with  joy  ;  whose  ]oy  in  Christ's  victory, 
aheady  won,  is  their  strength  in  the  hottest  of 
the  fight,  and  carries  them  through  to  the  last 
stroke  in  gladness. 

The  well  of  water  is  within  you ;  and  is  your 
life  still  a  desert,  habitually  empty  and  sad  ? 
Where,  then,  is  your  song,  "  Spring  up,  O  well " 
— ^the  answer  of  your  faith  to  God's  faithfulness, 
the  response  of  your  love  to  the  infinite  Love  ? 
In  our  prayers,  we  are  not  asking  ourselves 
whether  we  feel  happy ;  we  evoke  the  power 
of  the  Spirit  of  God  Who  is  in  us  to  praise  God, 
and  that  is  happiness.  Our  joy  is  not  in  receiv- 
ing some  sensible  consolation  from  Heaven, 
but  in  giving  to  God  with  all  the  energy  of 
grateful  love  our  praise  for  being  what  He  is. 
**  We  do  not  praise  Him  because  He  has  made 
us  to  triumph,  but  because  to  praise  Him  is  to 
triumph." 

Here  is  S.  Francis  of  Assisi's  prescription  for 
his  sad  times  :  *'  When  I  am  tempted  to  sadness 
and  bitterness,  I  consider  the  joy  of  my  brethren, 
and  the  sight  of  their  happiness  and  cheerfulness 
drives  away  my  heaviness  and  sadness,  so  that  I 
am  excited  to  interior  rejoicing,  and  external 
cheerfulness." 

George  Congreve. 


JOY  183 

Joy  is  set  in  the  heart  of  the  universe  :  enshrine 
your  happiest  moments,  they  will  give  you  the 
truest  thought  of  God. 

As  sunshine  is  stored  up  in  the  coal-measures, 
so  past  joy  and  gladness  may  be  stored  up  in  the 
soul  as   a   light  given   in   darker   days. 

A.  ].  Ross. 

Learn  to  enjoy  the  present — that  little  space 
of  time  between  the  great  past  and  the  still 
greater  future. 

H.  W.  Longfellow, 


Happiness  rarely  is  absent.  It  is  we  that  know 
not  of  its  presence.  The  greatest  felicity  avails 
us  nothing  if  we  know  not  that  we  are  happy. 

M.  Maeterlinck. 

Talk  happiness ;  the  world  is  sad  enough 
Without  your  woes.     No  path  is  wholly  rough  : 
Look  for  the  places  that  are  smooth  and  clear, 
And  speak  of  those  to  rest  the  weary  ear 
Of  earth,  so  hurt  by  one  continuous  strain 
Of  human  discontent  and  grief  and  pain. 
Quoted  in  Thoughts  Selected  from  the  Writings  of  Favourite  Authors. 


TpSTABLISH  Thou  the  work  of  our  hands  upon  us. 

Ps.  xc.  17. 

Each  man's  work  shall  be  made  manifest  .  .  .  and 
the  fire  itself  shall  prove  each  man's  work  of  what  sort  it  is. 

I  Cor.  iii.  13. 

Man  goeth  forth  unto  his  work  and  to  his  labour  until 
the  evening.  Ps.  civ.  23. 

Behold,  I  come  quickly :  and  My  reward  is  with  Me,  to 
render  to  man  according  as  his  work  is. 

Rev.  xxii.  12. 

Whatsoever  thy  hand  findeth  to  do,  do  it  with  thy  might  ; 
for  there  is  no  work,  nor  device,  nor  knowledge,  nor  wisdom, 
in  the  grave,  whither  thou  goest.  Eccles.  ix.  10. 

/  glorified  Thee  on  the  earth,  having  accomplished  the 
work  which  Thou  hast  given  me  to  do.       S.  John  xvii.  4. 

Let  each  man  prove  his  own  work,  and  then  shall  he 
have  his  glorying  in  regard  of  himself  alone,  and  not  of 
his  neighbour. 

For  each  man  shall  bear  his  own  burden. 

Gal.  vi.  4-5. 

Grant,  O  Lord,  that  all  Whom  Thou  dost  choose  to 
work  for  Thee  may  labour  in  union  with  Thy  holy 
purposes,  and  in  living  unity  with  Thy  dear  Son 
Jesus  Christ :    that  by  the  power  of  Thy  Holy  Spirit 

184 


WORK  185 

they  may  accomplish  far  more  than  they  ever  know, 
and  work  not  for  results,  but  for  the  single  love  of 
Thee. — Sursum  Corda. 

O  Lord,  I  give  myself  to  Thee,  I  trust  Thee  wholly. 
Thou  art  wiser  than  I — more  loving  to  me  than  I 
to  myself.  Deign  to  fulfil  Thy  high  purposes  in  me 
whatever  they  be — work  in  and  through  me.  I  am 
born  to  serve  Thee,  to  be  Thine,  to  be  Thy  instrument. 
Let  me  be  Thy  blind  instrument.  I  ask  not  to  see — 
I  ask  not  to  know — I  ask  simply  to  be  used. — John 
Henry  Newman, 

^be  Ip066ibilitie6  of  tbe  Common  Xife* 

Our  Lord  compares  His  kingdom  to  a  business 
firm,  which  requires  that  all  who  belong  to  it, 
whether  small  or  great,  whether  directors  or 
managers  or  clerks,  shall  exhibit  not  only  inte- 
grity but  keenness,  resourcefulness  and  activity 
in  their  work.  "  Trade  with  it  till  I  come,"  is 
the  language  of  His  commission  to  His  servants 
given  in  the  Parable  of  the  Pounds.  And  the 
Parable  of  the  Unjust  Steward  tells  us  that  the 
children  of  light  are  to  be  as  practical,  smart 
and  business-like  in  God's  pure  service  as  the  hero 
of  the  parable  was  for  his  own  private  interests. 
The  devil  is  not  to  monopolize  the  best  powers 
of  the  will,  leaving  religion  to  consist  in  odds 
and  ends  of  sentiment  or  speculation.  Life  in 
the  Kingdom  is  to  be  a  strenuous  life.  The  love 
of  all  mankind  which  is  to  be  its  objective  is 


i86  FRUITS  OF  SUFFERING 

not  to  become  a  vague,  watery  emotion  ;  the 
spirituality  which  is  its  temper  is  not  to  degenerate 
into  morbid  introspectiveness.  Work  is  to  be 
added  as  a  tonic  or  antiseptic  ;  zealous,  methodi- 
cal work,  such  as  commands  success  in  ordinary 
business,  but  which  is  to  be  consecrated  to  God's 
service. 

Arthur  Chandler. 


Work  and  suffering  are,  in  the  world  which 
we  are  at  present  concerned  with,  the  materials 
in  which  the  eternal  joy  of  the  spiritual  vision 
is  to  be  expressed,  the  things  we  find  to  do  and 
the  things  we  have  to  bear  are  our  stone  or  clay, 
and  our  task  is  to  fashion  these  so  that  they  may 
give  assurance  of  the  vision  at  whose  behest  we 
work,  in  the  enjoyment  of  which  we  endure. 

T.  J.  Hardy. 

The  true  spiritual  note  is  struck  when  into 
some  little  task,  some  common  relationship,  we 
bring  grace  and  joy  and  the  love  of  God  ;  when 
in  our  ordinary  dealings  we  manage  to  express 
the  temper  which  belongs  to  the  larger  con- 
sciousness of  the  soul,  the  temper  of  trust  and 
charity,    of  righteousness,    considerateness    and 


WORK  187 

peace  ;  when  we  work  *'  even  as  in  the  great 
Taskmaster's  eye,"  offering  Him  our  work  as  we 
offer  our  prayer  ;  when  a  heart  full  of  love  of 
the  Father  begets  a  passion  to  see  all  things 
actually  become  what  He  would  have  them  be. 

Ibid. 

Well,  that's  my  mission,  so  I  save  the  world, 

Figure  as  man  o'  the  moment, — in  default 

Of  somebody  inspired  to  strike  such  change 

Into  Society — from  round  to  square, 

The  ellipsis  to  the  rhomboid,  how  you  please, 

As  suits  the  size  and  shape  o'  the  world  he  finds. 

But  this  I  can, — and  nobody  my  peer — 

Do  the  best  with  the  least  change  possible  : 

Carry  the  incompleteness  on  a  stage, 

Make  what  was  crooked  straight,  and  roughness  smooth  : 

And  weakness  strong  :  wherein  if  I  succeed. 

It  will  not  prove  the  worst  achievement. 

R.  Browning. 


Thou  cam'st  not  to  thy  place  by  accident. 

It  is  the  very  place  God  made  for  thee. 

And  should'st  thou  there  small  scope  for  action  see, 

Do  not  for  this  give  room  to  discontent, 

Nor  let  the  time  thou  owest  to  God  be  spent 

In  idly  deeming  how  thou  mightest  be. 

In  what  concerns  thy  spiritual  life,  more  free 

From  outward  hindrance  or  impediment. 


i88  FRUITS  OF  SUFFERING 

For  presently  this  hindrance  thou  shalt  find 
That  without  which  all  goodness  were  a  task 
So  slight,  that  virtue  never  could  grow  strong  ; 
And  would'st  thou  do  one  duty  to  His  mind — 
The  Imposer's — overburdened  thou  shalt  ask, 
And  own  the  need  of  grace  to  help,  ere  long. 

R.  C.  Trench. 


Blessed  is  he  who  has  found  his  work  ;  let  him 
ask  no  other  blessedness. 

Thomas  Carlyle. 


Our  destiny  is  potential  within  ourselves. 
Every  man,  woman  and  child  possesses  this 
potentiality,  this  shaping  spirit  of  prayer  and 
the  love  of  God.  The  golden  stairs  are  in  every 
home,  in  every  house  of  business  and  workshop, 
whereby,  in  deep  communings  like  those  of 
Jesus  on  the  Galilean  hills,  we  may  bring  down 
troops  of  joys  and  graces  to  fill  the  common  day 
with  song. 

It  is  our  fault  altogether  if  the  lower  chambers 
of  life  are  dull  and  spiritless.  The  task  is  diffi- 
cult no  doubt.  ...  So  much  the  more  need 
for  that  steadfast  communion  with  the  Indwelling 
Love  which  gives  the  soul  a  power  and  persistence 
not  long  to  be  denied.     Resolute  always  to  see 


WORK  189 

what  good  there  is,  and  to  throw  the  whole 
weight  of  our  soul  on  to  the  side  of  that  good, 
we  shall  find  our  love  consuming  the  evil,  and 
liberating  kindred  souls  to  co-operate  with  us. 

T.  J.  Hardy. 

And  so  I  Uve,  you  see, 
Go  through  the  world,  try,  prove,  reject, 
Prefer,  still  struggling  to  effect 
My  warfare  ;  happy  that  I  can 
Be  crossed  and  thwarted  as  a  man. 
Not  left  in  God's  contempt  apart, 
With  ghastly  smooth  life,  dead  at  heart, 
Tame  in  earth's  paddock  as  her  prize. 
Thank  God,  she  still  each  method  tries 
To  catch  me,  who  may  yet  escape  ; 
She  knows, — the  fiend  in  angel's  shape  1 
Thank  God,  no  paradise  stands  barred 
To  entry,  and  I  find  it  hard 
To  be  a  Christian,  as  I  said  ! 
Still  every  now  and  then  my  head 
Raised  glad,  sinks  mournful — all  grows  drear 
Spite  of  the  sunshine,  while  I  fear 
And  think,  "  How  dreadful  to  be  grudged 
No  ease  henceforth,  as  one  that's  judged. 
Condemned  to  earth  for  ever,  shut 
From  heaven  1  " 

But  Easter  Day  breaks  !     But 
Christ  rises  1     Mercy  every  way 
Is  infinite, — and  who  can  say  ? 

R.  Browning, 


190  FRUITS  OF  SUFFERING 

JMebgeb  to  Service. 

There  is  no  question  that  by  our  baptism  our 
life  stands  under  the  pledge  of  service.  It  is 
not  the  privilege  of  the  few,  but  the  duty  of  all. 
.  .  .  No  man  can  be  in  the  true  sense  a  Christian 
who  does  not  know  and  keep  some  definite  place 
in  the  labours  of  Christ's  Kingdom.  For  some 
talent,  some  opportunity  of  influence,  some 
chance  of  work  we  all  possess.  God  never  set 
any  man  in  any  part  of  His  universe  without 
setting  some  opportunity  of  service  at  his  side. 
Whatever  it  may  be,  we  are  to  begin  there  and 
work  in  a  great  spirit.   .   .   . 

In  God's  sight  the  worth  of  our  life  is  never 
the  success  which  it  secures,  but  always  the  spirit 
which  it  puts  forth.  We  are  better  men  if  we 
fail  in  a  high  endeavour  than  if  we  succeed  in  a 
meagre  one.  The  great  thing  is  to  be  up  and 
doing,  to  be  strengthening  the  world's  hard 
upward  course,  and  resisting  its  easy  downward 
course,  by  the  resolute  output  of  faith  and  effort. 

Archbishop  Lang. 


Knowing  ourselves,  our  world,  our  task  so  great, 
Our  time  so  brief,  'tis  clear  if  we  refuse 
The  means  so  limited,  the  tools  so  rude 


WORK  191 

To  execute  our  purpose,  life  will  fleet, 
And  we  shall  fade,  and  leave  our  task  undone. 

R.  Browning. 

It  must  oft  fall  out 
That  one  whose  labour  perfects  any  work, 
Shall  rise  from  it  with  eye  so  worn  that  he 
Of  all  men  least  can  measure  the  extent 
Of  what  he  has  accomplished.     He  alone 
Who,  nothing  tasked,  is  nothing  weary  too, 
May  clearly  scan  the  little  he  effects. 

Ibid. 


The  consciousness  of  living  under  a  divine 
authority  and  providence  leads  us  to  regard  our 
life  as  a  vocation,  a  call  from  God.  We  can  no 
longer  regard  our  abilities,  our  opportunities, 
our  circumstances  as  fortuitously  concurrent 
accidental  things. 

Taken  in  their  combination  they  indicate  God's 
will  for  us ;  they  point  out  the  particular  work 
that  God  would  have  us  to  do.  .  .   . 

Our  faculties  and  opportunities  are  gifts  from 
God,  to  be  used  in  His  service,  and  for  whose 
right  use  we  are  responsible,  and  must  one  day 
give  account ;  ...  no  relative  insignificance 
of  the  gift  will  be  accepted  as  an  excuse  for  its 
misuse.     We  are  as  accountable  for  one  talent 


192  FRUITS  OF  SUFFERING 

as  for  ten  ;    for  the  use  of  the  eleventh  hour, 
as  much  as  for  the  burden  and  heat  of  the  day. 

J,  R.  Illingworth. 

The  ideal  of  the  individual  is  the  complete 
and  harmonious  development  of  all  his  powers, 
physical,  intellectual,  moral,  spiritual,  with  com- 
plete command  over  them,  crowned  by  the 
right  use  of  all  he  is  and  has  for  the  service  of 
others  :   for  he  cannot  be  an  end  to  himself. 

These  several  human  powers  obviously  exist 
in  different  men  in  different  degrees ;  but  man 
as  man  must  have  some  sense  of  honesty,  truth, 
goodness,  holiness  :  some  capacity  for  work, 
for  affection,  for  service  ;  and  his  duty  is  to  culti- 
vate each  power  and  capacity  in  due  measure. 
And  through  all  he  will  endeavour  to  realize 
himself  and  not  to  imitate  another  ;  to  be  true 
to  his  own  constitution,  that  so  he  may  offer 
his  peculiar  gifts  to  the  body  of  which  he  is  a 
member.  Such  man  rightly  fulfils  his  office  in 
virtue  of  his  special  character.  .  .  . 

Thus,  we  shall  not  aim  at  the  attainment  of 
universal  equality,  but  at  the  cultivation  of  per- 
sonal differences.  Humanity  is  not  an  aggregate 
of  indistinguishable  units,  but  a  living  whole 
in  which  each  part  fulfils  a  peculiar  function. 

Bishop  Westcott. 


WORK  193 

Zbc  mobility  of  Morh. 

There  is  a  perennial  nobleness,  and  even  sacred- 
ness,  in  work.  Were  he  never  so  benighted, 
forgetful  of  his  high  calling,  there  is  always  hope 
in  a  man  that  actually  and  earnestly  works  :  in 
Idleness  alone  is  there  perpetual  despair.  .  .  . 
The  latest  Gospel  in  this  world  is.  Know  thy 
work  and  do  it.  .  .  .  Know  what  thou  canst 
work  at ;    and  work  at  it,  like  a  Hercules  ! 

Labour  is  Life  :  from  the  inmost  heart  of 
the  Worker  rises  his  God-given  Force,  the  sacred 
celestial  Life-essence  breathed  into  him  by 
Almighty  God  :  from  his  inmost  heart  awakens 
him  to  all  nobleness, — to  all  knowledge  ...  so 
soon  as  work  fitly  begins.  .  .  .  Doubt,  of  what- 
ever kind,  can  be  ended  by  Action  alone. 

Thomas  Carlyle. 

It  has  been  written,  ''  an  endless  significance 
lies  in  work."  A  man  perfects  himself  by  working. 
Foul  jungles  are  cleared  away,  fair  seed  fields 
rise  instead,  and  stately  cities  ;  and  withal  the 
man  himself  first  ceased  to  be  a  jungle  and  foul 
unwholesome  desert  thereby.  Consider  how, 
even  in  the  meanest  sorts  of  Labour,  the  whole 
soul  of  a  man  is  composed  into  a   kind  of  real 

A.G.  O 


194  FRUITS  OF  SUFFERING 

harmony,  the  instant  he  sets  himself  to  work  ! 
Doubt,  Desire,  Sorrow,  Remorse,  Indignation, 
Despair  itself,  all  these  like  hell  dogs  lie  beleaguer- 
ing the  soul  of  the  poor  day  worker,  as  of  every 
man  :  but  he  bends  himself  with  free  valour 
against  his  task,  and  all  these  are  stilled,  all  these 
shrink  murmuring  far  off  into  their  caves.  The 
man  is  now  a  man.  The  blessed  glow  of  Labour 
in  him,  is  it  not,  as  purifying  fire,  wherein  all 
poison  is  burnt  up,  and  of  sour  smoke  itself  there 
is  made  bright  blessed  flame  ? 

Ibid. 


He  who  ascends  to  mountain  tops,  shall  find 
The  loftiest  peaks  most  wrapt  in  clouds  and  snow  ; 
He  who  surpasses  or  subdues  mankind, 
Must  look  down  on  the  hate  of  those  below. 
Though  high  above  the  sun  of  glory  glow. 
And  far  beneath  the  earth  and  ocean  spread. 
Round  him  are  icy  rocks,  and  loudly  blow 
Contending  tempests  on  his  naked  head, 
And  thus  reward  the  toils  which  to  these  summits   led. 

Byron. 


Existence  may  be  borne,  and  the  deep  root 
Of  life  and  sufferance  make  its  firm  abode 
In  bare  and  desolated  bosoms  :  mute 
The  camel  labours  with  the  heaviest  load. 


WORK  195 

And  the  wolf  dies  in  silence, — not  bestowed 
In  vain  should  such  example  be  ;  if  they, 
Things  of  ignoble  or  of  savage  mood, 
Endure  and  shrink  not,  we  of  nobler  clay 
May  temper  it  to  bear, — it  is  but  for  a  day. 

Ibid. 


"  Be  inspired  with  the  belief  that  life  is  a 
great  and  noble  calling  ;  not  a  mean  and  grovel- 
ling thing  that  we  are  to  shuffle  through  as  we  can, 
but  an  elevated  and  lofty  destiny." 

W.  E.  Gladstone  {John  Morley). 

There  are  ends  and  purposes  in  the  life  of 
each  of  us  which  are  literally  as  real  as  the  ends 
of  Christ's  life.  One  is  high  and  another  low ; 
one  has  much  and  another  little  ;  one  is  born  to 
govern,  to  acquire,  to  call  forth  new  powers  in 
the'  world  of  man  or  nature  ;  another  to  pass 
his  days  unknown,  to  carry  on  the  detail  of 
necessary  labour  in  his  time,  to  make  no  mark 
and  leave  no  memorial.  But  to  every  one  who 
believes  in  God  and  providence,  the  work  of 
each  is  equally  real  :  a  call,  a  commission,  a  talent, 
a  stewardship  from  God  ;  and  who  is  too  high 
or  too  low  to  say  that  the  inexpressible  serious- 
ness and  earnestness  of  the  life  described  in  the 

A.G.  0* 


196  FRUITS  OF  SUFFERING 

New  Testament  is  not  suited  to  guide  him  how 
to  think  and  feel  about  his  own  life  ? 

For  what  we  see  in  that  life  is  not  only  a  pur- 
pose and  work  passing  man's  understanding,  but 
that  purpose  followed  and  that  work  done,  in 
a  way  which  man  can  understand.  .  .  .  The 
Gospels  show  us  One,  with  the  greatest  of  works 
to  do,  .  .  .  One,  never  diverted  from  His  work, 
never  losing  its  clue,  never  impatient,  never  out 
of  heart,  Who  cries  not,  nor  strives,  nor  makes 
haste,  .  .  .  One  to  Whom  nothing  of  what  we 
call  loss  or  pain  is  so  much  as  worth  taking  account 
of,  in  competition  with  that  for  which  He  lived. 

R.  W.  Church. 


IRebceming  tbe  Zimc. 

The  soul  occupied  with  great  ideas  best 
performs  small  duties. 

James  Martineau. 

I  expect  to  pass  through  this  life  but  once.  If, 
therefore,  there  is  any  kindness  I  can  show,  or 
any  good  I  can  do  to  any  fellow  being,  let  me 
do  it  now,  let  me  not  defer  it,  for  I  shall  not  pass 
this  way  again. 

Mrs.  a.  B.  Hegeman 


WORK  197 

Toil  together  one  with  another,  struggle 
together,  run  together,  suffer  together,  lie  down 
together,  rise  up  together,  as  God's  stewards 
and  assessors  and  ministers.  Please  the  Captain 
in  whose  army  ye  serve,  from  Whom  also  ye  will 
receive  your  pay.  Let  none  of  you  be  found  a 
deserter.  Let  your  baptism  abide  with  you  as 
your  shield  ;  your  faith  as  your  helmet ;  your 
love  as  your  spear  ;  your  patience  as  your 
body-armour.  Let  your  works  be  your  deposits, 
that  ye  may  receive  your  assets  due  to  you. 

Epistle  of  S.  Ignatius  to  S.  Poly  carp  {trans,  by  Bishop  Lightfoot). 


"  Now  needs  thy  best  of  man  ;  "  so  spake  my  guide  : 
"  For  not  on  downy  plumes,  nor  under  shade 
Of  canopy  reposing,  fame  is  won ; 
Without  which  whosoe'er  consumes  his  days, 
Leaveth  such  vestige  of  himself  on  earth, 
As  smoke  in  air  or  foam  upon  the  wave. 
Thou  therefore  rise  :  vanquish  thy  weariness 
By  the  mind's  effort,  in  each  struggle  formed 
To  vanquish,  if  she  suffer  not  the  weight 
Of  her  corporeal  frame  to  crush  her  down." 

Dant6. 


198  FRUITS  OF  SUFFERING 

All  service  ranks  the  same  with  God — 
There  is  no  last  nor  first. 

R.  Browning. 

What  are  great  gifts  but  the  correlative  of 
great  work  ?  We  are  not  born  for  ourselves, 
but  for  our  kind,  for  our  neighbours,  for  our 
country  ;  it  is  but  selfishness,  indolence,  a  perverse 
fastidiousness,  an  unmanliness,  and  no  virtue  or 
praise,  to  bury  our  talent  in  a  napkin. 

J.  H.  Newman. 

Few  men  suspect  how  much  mere  talk  fritters 
away  spiritual  energy — that  which  should  be 
spent  in  action,  spends  itself  in  words.  Hence 
he  who  restrains  that  love  of  talk  lays  up  a  fund 
of  spiritual  strength. 

F.  W.  Robertson. 


How  may  a  man  attain  to  self-knowledge  ?  By 
Contemplation  ?  Certainly  not ;  but  by  Action. 
Try  to  do  your  duty  and  you  will  find  what  you 
are  fit  for.  But  what  is  your  duty  ?  The 
Demand  of  the  Hour. 

Goethe. 


WORK  1^9 

Ah  !  let  us  hope  that  to  our  praise 

Good  God  not  only  reckons 
The  moments  when  we  tread  His  ways, 

But  when  the  spirit  beckons, — 
That  some  slight  good  is  also  wrought 

Beyond  self-satisfaction, 
When  we  are  simply  good  in  thought, 

Howe'er  we  fail  in  action. 

J.  R.  Lowell. 


Having  laid  ourselves  at  God's  feet,  let  us 
not  lie  idly  there,  but  arise,  and  for  the  future 
do  the  work  of  God,  with  all  faithfulness  and 
industry. 

Bishop  Bull. 


One  lesson.  Nature,  let  me  learn  of   thee, 
One  lesson  which  in  every  wind  is  blown. 
One  lesson  of  two  duties  kept  at  one. 
Though  the  loud  world  proclaim  their  enmity- 
Of  toil  unsevered  from  tranquillity  ; 
Of  labour,  that  in  lasting  fruit  outgrows 
Far  noisier  schemes,  accomplished  in  repose — 
Too  great  for  haste,  too  high  for  rivalry. 
Yes,  while  on  earth  a  thousand  discords  ring, 
Man's  senseless  uproar  mingling  with  his  toil, 
Still  do  thy  quiet  ministers    move  on, 


200  FRUITS  OF  SUFFERING 

Their  glorious  tasks  in  silence  perfecting  ! 
Still  working,  blaming  still  our  vain    turmoil ; 
Labourers  that  shall  not  fail,  when  man  is  gone. 

Matthew  Arnold. 


We  can  pass  on  to  the  great  hope  which  from 
end  to  end  fills  the  Bible — the  hope  which  en- 
nobles and  gladdens  our  mortal  life  ;  such  a  hope 
as  carried  S.  Paul  in  strength  and  J07  through 
the  long  "  daily  dying "  of  his  Apostleship, 
and  burst  forth  in  such  impassioned  yet  most 
reasonable  conviction — "  For  I  reckon  that  the 
sufferings  of  this  present  time  are  not  worthy  to 
be  compared  with  the  glory  that  shall  be 
revealed  in  us  .  .  .  For  I  am  persuaded,  that 
neither  death,  nor  life,  nor  angels,  nor  principalities, 
nor  powers,  nor  things  present,  nor  things  to 
come,  nor  height,  nor  depth,  nor  any  other  crea- 
ture, shall  be  able  to  separate  us  from  the  love 
of  God,  which  is  in  Christ  Jesus  our  Lord." 

R.  W.  Church. 


Jnbey 


LIST  OF  AUTHORS  AND  BOOKS  QUOTED 


A  Kempis,  Thomas 


Arnold,  Matthew 
AuRELius,  Marcus 
AvEBURY,  Lord     . 
Bagehot,  Walter  . 
Beecher,  H.  Ward 

Bronte,  Emily 
Brooks,  Phillips    . 

Browne,  Thomas  . 
Browning,  E.  B.   . 


Browning,  Robert 


Bull,  Bishop 
Byron,  Lord 


Catherine  of  Russia. 
Chandler,  Dr.. 

Church,  Dean 


Imitation  of  Christ  . 
(Quoted  in  Thoughts  selected 
from  favourite  Authors) 

Poems 

Meditations     .... 


Biographical  Studies 
(Quoted  in  Thoughts  selected 

from  favourite  Authors) 

Poems 

Sermons  preached  in  English 

Churches      ... 
Christian  Morals . 

Poems 

Abt  Vogler     .... 
A  Death  in  the  Desert 
Asolando    .... 
Christmas    Eve    and     Easter 

Day 109, 

James  Lees'  Wife 

Paracelsus 115, 

Pippa  Passes    .... 
Prince  Hohenstiel 

Prospice     

Rabbi  ben  Ezra   . 

The  Ring  and  the  Book 

Sermons 

Childe  Harold's  Pilgrimage 
Heroes  and  Hero-Worship 
Past  and  Present 
Sartor  Resartus    . 


pages 

5.39 

176 
199 

9 

148 

9,11 

176 
148 


23, 


100 

9 

129 

42 

46 

161 

189 
40 
191 
198 
187 
158 
26 

38 
199 
194 
159 
193 
169 

156 

Ara  Coeh 69,  71,  129 

Faith  and  Experience  .  97,  112,  185 
Advent  Sermons  .  .  .166,  169,  200 
Gifts  of  Civilization      .      .  195 

Pascal,  and  other  Sermons  .  18,  19 

The  Discipline  of  the  Chris- 
tian Character  ....       63,  174 


"75 


[90, 


i3i> 


8,11, 

157, 
188, 


Churton,  Dr The  Use  of  Penitence 

201 


68,  82,  86 


202 


INDEX 


Clough,  a.  H. 
Coleridge,   M.  E.  . 

CONGREVE,  G. 

Cornish,  Warre  . 
Creighton,  Bishop 
Dant±  .... 
De  Sales,  S.  Francis 
De  Vere,  Aubrey  . 
Dickinson,  G.  Lowes 


Du  Bose,  Dr. 


Emerson. 
F:i:NELON 
Figgis,  Dr. 

Forsyth,  Dr. 


Froude,  R.  H. 
Goethe  . 
Gore,  Dr.    . 


Hardy,  T.  J.    . 
Hegeman,  Mrs. 


HoRT,  Dr. 


Hutchings,  W.  H. 
Tllingworth,  Dr. 


i6 

148 

197 

89,  126 

135 

96 

119,  i8i 

127,  128 


PAGES 

Poems 168 

Poems 6,9,30,  156,  178 

Christian  Progress  105,163,175,  179,181 

Sunningwell 

Life  and  Letters 

Inferno 

Spiritual  Letters  .... 

Poems 

Religion :     a  Criticism    and 

a  Forecast 

High  Priesthood  and   Sacri- 
fice     

Essays 14. 

Spiritual  Letters  to  Men    22,  26,  55,  130 
The     Gospel     and     Human 

Needs 96,  97,  1 1 1 

Positive   Preaching   and    the 

Modern  Mind  ....  59 

Lyra  Apostolica   ....  6j 

198 

The  Sermon  on  the  Mount  146 

The  Gospel  of  Pain     6,  26,  37,  46,  50, 

143,  186,  188 

(Quoted  in  Thoughts  selected 

from  favourite  Authors)  . 
The   Way,    the   Truth,   and 

the  Life 

The    Person    and    Work    of 

the  Holy  Ghost  . 
Christian  Character  . 
Divine  Transcendence 


96 


12,  13 


103 
20,27,  114 
128,  130,  149, 
150,  173,  191 


Sermons     preached     in     a 

College  Chapel      .      .      .         81,88 

Inge,  Dr Truth     and     Falsehood     in 

Religion 57 

JoLY,  Henri      ....     The  Psychology  of  the  Saints  27 

Keble,  John      ....      Letters  of    Spiritual  Counsel  65 

The  Christian  Year   ...  126 

King,  E.  Hamilton    .      .     The  Sermon  in  the  Hospital  20,  24,  49 

KiNGSLEY,  C Tovi^n  and  Country  Sermons  31 

Knight,  Prof The  Christian  Ethic  77,  86, 155, 167, 177 

Lang,  Dr The  Miracles  of  Jesus     .       4,  116,  142 

The  Parables  of  Jesus    .     .       25,  190 


INDEX 


203 


LiGHTFOOT,    Dr. 

Longfellow,  H.  W. 


Lowell,  J.  R. 
Maeterlinck,  M.  . 
Manning,  Cardinal 


Martineau,  James 
Mason,  Dr.  A.  J. 


A  Serious  Call     ....  96 

Christian  Perfection  ...  88 
Epistle    of     S.    Ignatius     to 

S.  Polycarp 153,  197 

Life  and  Letters        .      .      ,  22,  183 

Poems 145 

Poems 129,  145,   199 


Wisdom  and  Destiny 
Sin  and  its  Consequences    . 
The  Internal  Mission  of  the 
Holy  Ghost       .... 


Maturin,  B.  W.     . 
MOBERLY,   Dr.   R.    C. 


Moore,  Aubrey  L. 
MoRLEY,  John 
Myers,  F.  W.  H.  . 
Newman,  Dr.    . 


Newcomb,  C.  B.    . 

Ottley,  Dr. 

Paget,  Dr.  Francis    . 


Paget,  Stephen 
Pater,  Walter 
Patmore,  Coventry     . 

Plato     

RoBBiNs,  Dr.  Wilford  L. 
Robertson,  F.  W. 

Ross,  A.  J 

Ruskin,  John    .      .      .      . 


183 
73,83 

134 
196 

The  Ministry  of  Conversion  60 

The  Faith  of  the  Gospel  33,  70,  98,  107 
Some  Principles  and  Prac- 
tices of  the  Spiritual  Life  66 
Atonement  and  Personality.  123 
Sorrow,  Sin,  and  Beauty  .  29,  38,  48 
The  Spiritual  Guide  .  .  7,21 
Some  Aspects  of  Sin  .  .  59,  72 
Life  of  Gladstone     .    32,  127,  145,  195 

S.  Paul 128 

Dream  of  Gerontius  .  .  64, 94 
Lyra  Apostohca  56,  58,  68,  70,  72, 

83,  89 
Parochial  Sermons  .  .  .  13,  198 
University  Sermons  ...  107 

(Quoted  in  Thoughts  selected 

from  favourite  Authors)  .  178 

Lux  Mundi 124 

Faculties  and  Difficulties  of 

Belief  and  Disbelief     .      .      165,  171 
The  Spirit  of  Discipline  14,  15,99,  137 

I  Wonder 133 

Marius  the  Epicurean     .      .  147 

The  Rod,  the  Root,  and  the 

Flower    .      .      .     40,45,80,114,126 

The  Republic 55 

An  Essay  toward  Faith  .  61,63,  120 
Life  and  Letters  ...  28,  198 
Life  and  Letters        ...  183 

Ethics  of  the  Dust     .      .      .  144 

Mornings  in  Florence     .      .  136 

Stones  of  Venice       ...  164 


204 

H.  S.  Holland,  Dr.    . 

SiBBEs,  Dr.  R.  . 

Spender,  J.  A.  .      . 

S.  Augustine 

S.  Chrysostom 

S.  Gregory  of  Nyssa 

S.  Theresa 

Stevenson,  R.  L. 


INDEX 

Lux  Mundi     .     loi,  104,  109, 
On  Behalf  of  Belief  .      .      . 
The  Soul's  Conflict  .      .      . 
The  Comments  of  Bagshot. 


PAGES 

no,  115 

102 

56 

109 
69 
54 

75 
153 
178 
161 

178 

174 
158 
160 
169 


[46, 


56,  1575 


Talbot,  Dr. 
Taylor,  Jeremy     . 


Tennyson    . 
Tertullian 
Traherne,  Thomas 
Trench,  Archbishop 
Tyrrell,  George 


Ullathorne,  Dr.  . 

Watson,  Ellen 
Waggett,  p.  N.     . 


Webb,  Bishop 
Westcott,  Dr. 


Wilberforce,  Dr.  .     . 
Wordsworth,  William 


A  Christmas  Sermon 
Aes  Triplex     .... 
An  Apology  for  Idlers 
An  Inland  Voyage     . 
The  Great  North  Road 
Underwoods    .      .      .      . 
Virginibus  Puerisque 
Some    Aspects    of    Christian 

Truth 

The   Doctrine   and   Practice 

of  Repentance  .... 
In  Memoriam  .... 
De  Poenitentia  .... 
Centuries  of  Meditation 

Poems 130, 

Lex  Credendi.      .      .      80,87,125,153 
Nova  et  Vetera    ....  170 

Oil  and  Wine      56,  62,  79,  85,  100,  105, 
III,  114,  117,  121 
Christian  Patience     .      .132,  134, 

Letters  

Life  and  Letters 

The    Scientific    Temper    in 

Religion 115, 

Life  and  Service  before  the 

Throne 108 

Lessons  from  Work  ...  192 

The  Epistles  of  St.  John     .  74 

The  Historic  Faith   ...  95 

The  Victory  of  the  Cross      30,35,41, 

44,47 

Sermons 5?  ^° 

Poems 14,  20,  28 


154 

76 
"3 

76 
179 
187 


138 
23 

37 

118 


A  Modern  Mystic's  Way 

Letters  from  a  Mystic  of  the  Present  Day 


144,  Hh  175 
167 


Printed  for 
ROBERT  SCOTT,  Publisher,  faternoster  row,  London,  by  butler  &.  tanner 


